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FHE 


Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 


UNIFORM    WITH   THIS    VOLUME 

COUNTRIES  AND  PEOPLES  SERIES 

Each  in  imperial  16mo,  cloth  gilt,  gilt  top, 
with  about  30  full-page  plate  illustrations. 


ITALY  OF  THE  ITALIANS 

BY  HELEN  ZIMMERN 
FRANCE  OF  THE  FRENCH 

BY  E.  HARRISON  BARKER 
SPAIN  OF  THE  SPANISH 

BY  MRS.  VILLIERS-WARDELL 
SWITZERLAND  OF  THE  Swiss 

BY  FRANK  WEBB 
GERMANY  OF  THE  GERMANS 

BY  ROBERT  M.  BERRY 
TURKEY  OF  THE  OTTOMANS 

BY  LUCY  M.  J.  GARXETT 
BELGIUM  OF  THE  BELGIANS 

BY  DEMETRIUS  C.  BOULGER 
SERVIA  OF  THE  SERVIANS 

BY  CHEDO  MIJATOVICH 
JAPAN  OF  THE  JAPANESE 

BY  PROF.  J.  H.  LONGFORD 
AUSTRIA  OF  THE  AUSTRIAN'S,  AND 
HUNGARY  OF  THE  HUNGARIANS 

BY  L.  KELLNER,  PAULA  ARNOLD, 

AND  ARTHUR  L.  DELISLE 
RUSSIA  OF  THE  RUSSIANS 

BY  H.  W.  WILLIAMS,  PH.D. 
AMERICA  OF  THE  AMERICANS 

BY  HENRY  C.  SHELLEY 
GREECE  OF  THE  HELLENES 

BY  LUCY  M.  J.  GARNETT 
HOLLAND  OF  THE  DUTCH 

BY  DEMETRIUS  C.  BOULGER 
SCANDINAVIA  OF  THE  SCANDINAVIANS 

BY  H.  GODDARD  LEACH 
EGYPT  OF  THE  EGYPTIANS 

BY  W.  LAWRENCE  BALLS 


Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 


By 

Aubrey   F.   G.   Bell 

AUTHOR  OF  "THE  MAGIC  OF '  SPAIN,"  "IN  PORTUGAL,"  ETC. 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS 
597-599  Fifth  Avenue 
1915 


PRINTED  BY 
SIR  ISAAC  PITMAN  &  SONS,  LTD.,  LONDON 


PREFACE 

SINCE  the  murder  of  King  Carlos  and  of  the  Crown  Prince 
Luis  Felipe  on  the  1st  of  February,  1908,  Portugal  has  been  in 
the  limelight.  A  swarm  of  writers  have  descended  like  locusts 
on  the  land,  and  the  printing-presses  of  Europe  have  groaned 
beneath  the  mass  of  matter  concerning  this  unfortunate 
country.  Yet  most  often  the  matter  has  been  necessarily 
superficial,  and  a  few  outstanding  features,  a  murder,  a 
revolution,  the  methods  of  a  secret  society,  have  laid  hold  on 
public  attention.  The  Portuguese  is,  therefore,  apt  to  be 
regarded  less  as  a  poetical  dreamer,  heir  of  the  glories  of  the 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  than  as  a  political  schemer, 
with  a  pistol  in  one  pocket  and  a  bomb  in  another.  And 
since  in  the  matter  of  political  disturbances  the  end  is  not 
yet,  and  a  strident  minority  is  likely  for  some  years  to  come 
to  impose  itself  in  Portugal  and  attempt  to  impose  itself  on 
public  opinion  abroad,  crying  out  that  all  criticism  of  it  springs 
from  hatred  of  Portugal,  it  is  of  importance  to  distinguish 
between  this  minority  of  misguided,  unscrupulous  and  half- 
educated  persons,  and  the  true  people  of  Portugal.  We  do 
not  usually  mistake  a  little  yellow  froth  on  the  surface  for  the 
sea,  and  only  the  ignorant  will  saddle  the  Portuguese  people 
with  the  words  and  deeds  of  a  political  party  with  which 
it  has  no  connection  whatever,  not  even  that  of  the  vote. 
Great  Britain  has  everything  to  gain  from  a  better  under- 
standing of  a  people  with  which  she  has  so  many  dealings, 
and  which  is  in  itself  so  extraordinarily  interesting  and 


vi  Preface 

attractive.  Prejudices  rather  easily  formed  against  it  vanish 
in  the  light  of  better  knowledge.  In  intellectual  matters  at 
present  Portugal  turns  almost  exclusively  to  France,  but 
there  is  no  reason  why  the  business  connection  between 
Great  Britain  and  Portugal  should  not  lead  to  closer  ties. 
A  needful  preliminary  is  that  Englishmen  should  be  at  pains 
to  learn  something  more  of  her  ancient  ally  than  is  manifested 
in  its  politics,  often  as  representative  of  Heligoland  or  Honolulu 
as  of  Portugal. 

AUBREY   F.   G.   BELL. 

S.    JOAO    DO  ESTORIL, 

June,  1915. 


CONTENTS 


CHAP.  PAGE 

PREFACE  V 

I.      CHARACTERISTICS 1 

II.      POPULATION   AND   EMPLOYMENT  ...         25 

III.  LIFE   IN   TOWN   AND   COUNTRY     .  .  .  .41 

IV.  RELIGION   AND  EDUCATION  .  .  .  .61 
V.      A   LAND   OF   FLOWERS           .....         76 

VI.      CONVENTS   AND   PALACES 88 

VII.      HISTORICAL   SURVEY  .  ,  .  .  .107 

VIII.      LITERATURE       .......  133 

IX.      PLAYS — GIL  VICENTE 152 

X.      POLITICS   AND   THE   PRESS               .             .             .             .  164 

XI.      FROM   MONARCHY   TO   REPUBLIC               .             .             .  183 

XII.      RECENT  EVENTS 199 

XIII.  GREAT  BRITAIN   AND   PORTUGAL             .            .            .  216 

XIV.  PORTUGAL  OF  THE   FUTURE           ....  229 

GLOSSARY            .......  259 

INDEX 263 

MAP  ......  end  of  book 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


GENERAL   VIEW,  LISBON 

ROMAN   TEMPLE,  EVORA 

WOMEN   AT  WORK        .... 

A   FARMHOUSE,  MINHO 

A   FARMER 

THE   VINTAGE,  DOURO 

TERREIRO   DO   PAgO,  LISBON 

BOM   JESUS   DO   MONTE,  BRAGA     . 

A   SHEPHERD       ..... 

CONVENTO   DE   JERONYMOS,  BELEM 

CASTELLO   DA   PENA,  CINTRA 

CLOISTER   OF   D.  DINIZ,  ALCOBAQA 

TOMB   OF   D.  IN£S   DE   CASTRO,  ALCOBAgA 

GENERAL  VIEW,  OPORTO 

THE   CONVENT,  MAFRA 

THE   CHURCH,  BATALHA 

THE   CATHEDRAL,  BRAGA       . 

GENERAL   VIEW,  COIMBRA    . 

THE  WASHING-PLACE,  COIMBRA     . 

CASTLE   OF  ALMOUROL 


Frontispiece 

.  facing  page        2 

8 

30 

32 

38 

42 

50 

60 

88 

90 

92 

94 

102 

128 

130 

140 

146 

164 

170 


x  Illustrations 

GENERAL  VIEW,  VILLA  REAL        .          .          .  facing  page   174 

TOWER  OF   CASTLE,  BEJA     ....,,  178 

RUINED    CASTLE,  LEIRIA        .  182 

DOORWAY   OF  THE   UNFINISHED   CHAPELS, 

BATALHA           .             .             .             .             .             .  „  208 

INTERIOR   OF   THE   CHURCH,  BATALHA    .             .  ,.  214 

CONVENTO    DE    CHRISTO,  THOMAR              .             .  „  216 

GENERAL   VIEW,  FARO            .             .             .             .  ,,  232 

A   SQUARE,  LISBON ,,  236 

CEDAR  AVENUE,  BUSSACO    .             .             .             .  „  240 

A   STUDY   IN   COSTUMES  248 


Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 


CHAPTER   I 

CHARACTERISTICS 

Too  many  judge  the  character  of  the  Portuguese  from  a 
hasty  study  of  what  Beckford  nearly  a  century  ago  impolitely 

called  the  Lisbon  canaille.    The  life  of  the 
The  People.      Portuguese  in  a  political  and  literary  (written 

literature)  sense  is  concentrated  in  Lisbon, 
but  outside  this  narrow  circle  exists  the  Portuguese  people 
proper,  to  the  foreigner  almost  an  unknown  quantity,  taking 
no  concern  for  the  latest  political  party  formed  or  the  latest 
volume  of  second-rate  verse  published,  yet  constituting  in 
its  strength  or  weakness  the  political  future  of  Portugal  and 
containing  within  itself  a  whole  literature  of  prose  and  poetry, 
legend  and  song.  In  some  measure  those  who  know  the  Irish 
peasant  know  the  Portuguese,  and  those  who  know  the  Irish 
will  realise  from  this  comparison  what  a  delightful  mine  of 
interest  is  here  to  hand.  Indeed,  if  you  take  the  Irish  pea- 
santry, add  hot  sun,  a  spice  of  the  East,  and  perhaps  something 
of  the  negro's  vanity  and  slight  hold  on  life,  you  have  the 
Portuguese.  The  quick  intelligence,  the  dreaming  melan- 
choly, the  slyness  and  love  of  intrigue,  the  wit  and  imagination 
are  here,  and  the  power  of  expression  in  words.  Generosity, 
too,  and  habits  as  unpractical  as  could  be  desired. 

The  politician  in  Portugal  who  looks  at  the  statistics,  and, 
seeing  that  75  per  cent,  of  this  people  are  illiterate,  shrugs  his 

shoulders — non  ragionar  di  lor — makes  a  great 
Patriotism.      mistake,  for  it  is  here  that  those  who  have 

considered  the  political  intrigues  of  the  capital 
and  despaired  of  Portugal's  present  find  a  new  hope  :  a 
population  hard-working,  vigorous,  and  intelligent,  increasing 

1 

i— (2404) 


2  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

fairly  rapidly,  content  with  little,  not  willingly  learning  to  read 
or  write,  but  in  its  own  way  eagerly  patriotic,  each  loving 
Portugal  as  represented  by  his  own  town  or  village  or  farm, 
though  he  may  not  have  grasped  the  latest  shades  of  humanity, 
fraternity,  or  irreligion. 

A  minha  casa,  a  minha  casinha, 
Nao  ha  casa  como  a  minha. 

From  the  earliest  times  the  inhabitants  of  this  western  strip 
of  the  Iberian  peninsula  had  shown  themselves  capable  of 
heroic  deeds  and  at  the  same  time  impressionable,  open  to 
new  ideas  and  foreign  influences,  more  ready  to  co-operate 
with  the  French  and  English  than  with  their  inland  neighbours 
the  Castilians.  Had  the  characters  of  these  two  neighbours 
been  less  incompatible,  Portugal  might  have  come  to  recognise 
the  hegemony  of  Castille,  as  sooner  or  later  did  all  the  other 
regions  of  the  Peninsula,  some  of  which  were  separated  from 
the  central  plains  by  natural  barriers  more  difficult  than  was 
Portugal.  But  to  the  Portuguese  the  Castilian  too  often  was 
and  is  a  stranger  and  an  enemy. 

As  the  power  of  Castille  grew,  Portugal  called  in  a  new 

world  to  redress  the  balance  of  the  old.     Unfortunately  in 

reaching  out  for  this  support  Portugal  fatally 

King  Manoel  overstrained  her  strength,  and  the  brilliant 
Fortunate.  reign  (1495-1521)  of  King  Manoel  I  ("  that 
great,  fortunate,  and  only  Emanuel  of 
Portugall,"  Sir  Peter  Wyche  called  him)  resembled  the 
Cid's  famous  coffers,  all  crimson  and  golden  without,  but 
containing  more  sand  than  gold.  Those  who  look  at  the 
bedraggled  coffer  hanging  in  Burgos  Cathedral  wonder  how 
it  can  have  deceived  the  two  Jews,  and  those  who  see  the 
present  somewhat  penniless  and  forlorn  condition  of  Portugal 
are  apt  to  forget  that  it  was  once  a  great  world-empire. 
Before  Portugal  became  that  we  have  glimpses  of  the  Portu- 
guese as  a  contented  people,  fond  of  song  and  dance,  a  pipe 
and  drum  at  every  door,  living  rustic,  idyllic  lives  as  cultivators 


Characteristics  3 

of  the  soil  in  a  "  land  abounding  in  meat  and  drink, 
terra  de  vyandas  e  beveres  muyto  avondosa "  (fifteenth 
century). 

But  the  discoveries  and  conquests  followed,  the  magic  of 
the  sea,  the  mystery  of  the  East  wove  a  spell  over  the  imagina- 
tion of  the  Portuguese,  the  country  was 
drained  of  men,  devastated  by  plague  and 
famine.  Lisbon  and  the  East  absorbed 
energies  hitherto  given  to  the  soil.  Portugal,  moreover,  was 
doomed  to  share  Spain's  losses  during  the  period  1580-1640, 
and  later  was  ravaged  by  frequent  civil  wars.  In  fine  one 
might  expect  to  find  a  dwindling  miserable  population,  dying 
out  from  sheer  exhaustion.  But  this  would  be  very  far  from 
being  a  true  statement  of  the  case.  Portugal  is  only  lying 
fallow.  There  are  reserves  of  health  and  energy,  especially 
in  the  north,  in  the  sturdy  peasants  of  Beira  and  Minho. 
Politically  it  is  only  a  potential  strength,  and  the  real  people 
of  Portugal  has  never  yet  come  into  its  own,  although  it  was 
on  the  point  of  doing  so  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury. It  was  not  allowed  to  develop  naturally  after  the  first 
third  of  that  great  century.  Even  to-day  there  are  said  to 
be  certain  politicians  who  would  dress  it  up  in  a  suit  of  ready- 
made  clothes  which  has  caught  their  fancy  in  some  shop 
window  when  they  were  on  a  visit  to  Paris.  The  Portuguese 
people  deserves  better  than  that,  and  if  it  can  be  given  a 
national  government,  and  a  national  policy  and  ideals,  it  may 
yet  surprise  Europe.  It  is  a  question  of  encouraging  the 
indigenous  side  of  Portuguese  civilisation — in  language, 
literature,  dress,  legislation,  drama,  cookery,  in  everything — • 
which  since  the  sixteenth  century  has  been  set  aside  for  the 
imported  foreign-erudite ;  to  develop  as  it  were  the  Saxon 
element  at  the  expense  of  the  Norman.  The  people  have 
succeeded  in  keeping  many  of  their  old  and  excellent  customs 
—  but  by  the  skin  of  their  teeth  now — as  they  have  their 
own  names  for  many  of  the  Lisbon  streets  and  their  own  words 
side  by  side  with  those  of  learned  origin. 


4  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

But  in  order  to  become  acquainted  with  the  Portuguese 

people  it  is  necessary  to  go  far  afield,  to  the  remote  villages 

of  Alemtejo   or  Minho   or   of  the   Serra  da 

Ingredients.  Estrella,  and,  the  means  of  doing  this  being 
often  primitive  or  non-existent,  the  traveller 
contents  himself  with  swift  generalities  derived  from  observa- 
tion of  the  inhabitants  of  the  towns,  precisely,  that  is,  where 
the  Portuguese  most  displays  his  weaknesses  and  where  the 
population  is  most  mixed.  Reclus  considered  the  Portuguese 
"  tres  jortement  croises  de  negres,"  and  other  foreign  observers 
have  denied  the  existence  of  a  Portuguese  nationality,  dis- 
missing it  as  a  mere  pot  pourri  of  many  races.  If  this  is  an 
exaggeration,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  many  peaceful  or 
warrior  invaders — Phoenician,  Celt,  Carthaginian,  Greek  or 
Goth — attracted  by  this  lovely  land  from  age  to  age,  and  the 
numerous  slaves  imported  from  Portugal's  overseas  dominions 
have  contributed  to  form  a  mixed  population,  especially  in 
and  around  Lisbon.  At  Lisbon  many  persons  evidently 
have  negro  blood  in  their  veins,  and  others  are  of  Jewish 
descent.  Sobieski,  the  Polish  traveller,  wrote  in  1611  : 
"  There  are  in  Portugal  very  many  Jews,  so  many  that  various 
houses  have  a  Jewish  origin.  Although  they  have  burnt  and 
expelled  them,  many  live  hidden  among  the  Portuguese." 
This  was  114  years  after  the  expulsion  of  the  Jews  from 
Portugal. 

But  Lisbon  is  a  country  in  itself,  divorced  in  many  ways 

from  the  rest  of  Portugal.     The  Portuguese  provinces  present 

many  differences  of  character  among  their 

Provinces.  inhabitants,  from  the  lively  chattering  algarvio 
in  the  south  to  the  duller,  quietly  poetical 
and  dreamy  minhoto  on  the  border  of  Galicia,  unfairly 
described  by  Oliveira  Martins  as  "  without  elevation  of  spirit, 
dense,  the  Dutch  of  Portugal,"  the  fervent,  hardy  beirao 
mountaineer  or  the  stolid  farmers  of  Alemtejo. 

Taking  the  character  of  the  Portuguese  as  a  whole,  its  main 
feature  seems  to  be  vagueness.     Their  minds  are  not  inductive. 


Characteristics  5 

They  think  in  generalities  and  abstractions,  and  their 
deductions  often  have  a  closer  relation  to  these  than  to  the 
facts  of  life.  No  doubt  the  dreamy  climate 
Chapter  (Kin&  Duarte  in  the  fifteenth  century  noted 
the  effect  of  climate  on  character),  the  misty 
blue  skies  and  wide  sea  horizons  have  exercised  as  much 
influence  on  the  character  of  the  inhabitants  as  the  many 
foreign  ingredients,  the  uncertain  land  boundaries,  the  fear 
of  attacks  from  the  sea,  the  indefinite  dangers  of  earthquake 
and  plague.  Everywhere  in  Portugal  is  this  lack  of  precision 
evident,  in  the  fondness  for  abstractions  and  unsubstantial 
grandeur,  the  counting  in  reis  (most  transactions  continue 
to  be  made  in  reis,  which  though  apparently  clumsy  is  really 
simpler  than  the  new  system  of  centavos — 10  reis — and 
escudos — 1,000  reis),  the  love  of  the  lottery,  the  perpetual 
tendency  to  exaggerate,  the  inexhaustible  and  vague  good- 
nature which  some  more  direct  minds  find  so  trying,  the  facile 
criticism  which  encourages  the  existence  of  too  many  poets, 
politicians  and  other  nonentities,  the  absence  of  discipline, 
the  belief  in  the  efficacy  of  words  and  rhetoric,  the  idle  expecta- 
tion of  better  things,  the  sebastianismo  which  looks  for  the 
return  of  the  ill-fated  king — a  later  Arthur — "  on  a  morning 
of  thick  mist  " — the  universal  cult  of  undefined  melancholy 
and  saudade.  The  French  saying,  "  Les  portugais  sonl  loujours 
gais,"  should  be  rendered — 

Nos  labios  chistes, 
No  cora^ao  tristes. 
(On  their  lips  a  smile, 
Sad  at  heart  the  while.) 

None  but  a  nation  with  a  beautiful  land  and  delightful 

climate  could  be  so  sad.     Less  favoured  peoples  are  fain  to 

be  content  with  what  they  can  get,  and,  in 

"Saudade."     their  necessary  efforts  to  obtain  something, 

often  obtain  much.     The  Portuguese,  living 

in  a  land  where  it  is  possible  to  support  life  on  almost  nothing, 

has  little  incentive  to  effort.     Moreover,  the  Portuguese  turns 


6  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

his  imagination  to  the  ideal,  and  comparing  it  with  the  real, 
is  saddened.  His  pessimism  is  essentially  that  of  the  idealist  : 
disillusion.  He  wishes  for  all  or  nothing,  aims  at  a  million 
and  misses  an  unit,  whereas  men  more  practical  with  less 
intelligence  it  may  be,  and  certainly  less  imagination,  set 
themselves  to  the  work  before  them,  and  prosper.  But  it 
must  not  be  thought  that,  because  the  Portuguese  cultivates 
a  gentle  melancholy,  he  has  a  poor  heart  that  never  rejoices. 
His  sadness  is  often  as  superficial  as  the  Englishman's  impas- 
sivity. He  is,  generally,  far  too  intelligent  to  find  life  ever 
dull,  or  if  he  yields  to  ennui  it  is  of  the  gorgeous  philosophical 
kind  which  takes  a  subtle  pleasure  in  saying  that  "  Vanity, 
vanity,  all  is  vanity."  As  a  rule,  his  sense  of  ridicule  on  the 
one  hand  and  his  nervous  self-consciousness  on  the  other 
make  of  life  for  him  a  perpetual  feast  of  little  comedies  and 
tragedies.  But  in  practical  matters,  failing  to  realise  his  ideal, 
he  does  not  attempt  to  idealise  the  real,  but  views  it  with 
laughter  or  disdain.  The  ideal  is  usually  vague  and  set  apart 
from  practical  life. 

Thus  the  humanity  of  the  Portuguese  is  real,  they  have  no 
love  of  violence  or  bloodshed,  but  it  is  a  state  of  mind  rather 

than  a  course  of  action,  and  can  be  curiously 
Humanity.       combined  with  cruel  persecutions  in  practice. 

The  expulsion  of  the  Jews  came  to  Portugal 
from  Spain,  and  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  the  Portuguese 
people  ever  viewed  the  Inquisition  fires  in  the  Rocio  with 
anything  but  horror.  But  Vasco  da  Gama,  Affonso 
d'Albuquerque,  Dom  Joao  de  Castro  and  other  Portuguese 
in  the  East  perpetrated  cruelties  as  terrible  as  any  practised 
by  the  Inquisition.  It  was  the  habit  of  the  early  discoverers 
to  seize  a  few  natives  and,  if  they  desired  information,  put 
them  to  the  torture.  For  sheer  callousness  the  following  deed 
recorded  of  Vasco  da  Gama  is  remarkable  (the  date  might 
almost  be  1915)  :  "  Namen  wi  een  scip  van  Media  daer  war  en 
in  drie  hondert  manne  en  tachtich  en  veel  vrouwen  en  kinderen. 
En  wi  namen  daar  wt  wel  xii.  dusent  ducat  en  en  noch  wel 


Characteristics  7 

x.  dusent  an  comanscap.  Eh  wi  verbranden  dat  scip  en  al 
dat  vole  te  pulwer  den  tersten  dach  in  October/'  (That  is : 
Having  captured  a  peaceful  trading  ship  from  Mecca,  and 
taken  thereout  the  ducats  and  merchandise,  the  Portuguese 
under  Vasco  da  Gama  blew  up  the  ship  with  380  men  and 
many  women  and  children  in  her.)  The  Flemish  sailor 
chronicles  the  fact  with  more  directness  than  would  have 
marked  a  Portuguese  account.  What  is  so  striking  is  that  the 
dreamy  humanity  of  the  Portuguese  does  not  desert  him  in 
such  an  event.  To  take  a  recent  instance — the  murder  of 
Lieutenant  Scares  in  Lisbon — no  foreigner  could  ever  forget 
the  gentle  good-nature  of  the  assassins,  apparently  bonhommes 
and  affable,  nor  the  indifference  and  equanimity  of  the  small 
crowd  that  collected.  Few  Portuguese  would  consider  Steven- 
son anything  but  a  pagan  when  he  exclaims,  at  the  idea  of 
loving  all  men  :  "  God  save  me  from  such  irreligion  !  " 
Such  directness  is  foreign  to  their  temperament.  They  would 
understand  better  the  cry  of  the  Canadian  poet,  £mile  Nelligan, 
"  J'ai  voulu  tout  aimer  et  je  suis  malheureux,"  or  Corneille's 
strange  recommendation,  "  Aimez-les  toutes  (all  women)  en 
Dieu." 

The  position  of  women  in  Portugal  is  another  instance  of 
vague  ideals.     Woman  is  set  on  a  pedestal,  but  women  are 

not   always  treated   with  consideration,  and 
Women.         in  some  parts  of  the  country  are  little  better 

than  slaves.  Over  and  over  again  you  will 
meet  a  man  and  a  woman,  husband  and  wife,  perhaps,  the 
man  in  lordly  fashion  carrying  a  small  parcel  or  nothing  at 
all,  the  woman  bowing  under  a  huge  load.  No  one  thinks  of 
protesting  against  this,  it  passes  without  notice,  nor  has  the 
Republican  Parliament,  which  has  shown  itself  copious  in 
legislation,  bestirred  itself  to  introduce  a  bill  dealing  with  the 
position  of  women,  although  it  has  denied  them  the  right  to 
vote.  The  peasant  women  continue  to  do  twice  the  work  of 
the  men,  and  to  receive  half  the  wages.  Frei  Joao  dos  Santos 
at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century  noted  (Ethiopia 


8  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

Oriental,  1609)  that  it  was  "  as  natural  for  Kaffir  women  to 
work  in  the  fields  as  to  the  women  of  Minho  to  spin,"  but  at 
the  present  day  it  is  the  women  in  Portugal  who  do  a  heavy 
part  of  out-of-door  work.  To  their  semi-slavery  and  Moorish 
toil  may  perhaps  be  ascribed  partly  the  fact  that  the  women 
in  Portugal  are  less  graceful  and  good-looking  than  the  men. 
On  the  other  hand,  Portuguese  women  of  all  classes  often  dis- 
play a  common  sense  and  strength  and  firmness  of  character 
to  a  greater  degree  than  do  the  men. 

Another  good  instance  of  the  gulf  between  the  ideal  and 
the  real  is  to  be  found  in  the  conception  and  the  practice  of 

liberty.    Abstract   Liberty  with   a   great   L 
Liberty.         goes  to  the  head  of  the  Portuguese  like  wine, 

and  in  its  name  they  have  effected  many  a 
revolution  and  committed  many  a  crime.  In  practice  it 
can  still  be  used,  as  two  thousand  years  ago,  "  for  a  cloak  of 
maliciousness."  "  Luminous  in  its  virginal  essence  rises  the 
beneficent  aspiration  of  a  regime  of  liberty."  No  doubt  these 
celebrated  words  of  Dr.  Theophilo  Braga  on  the  occasion  of 
the  proclamation  of  the  Republic  were  sincere,  in  so  far  as 
words  so  abstract  can  have  any  concrete  quality,  but  their 
vagueness  was  characteristic  and  ominous.  Equally  indefi- 
nite had  been  the  poet  Snr.  Guerra  Junqueiro's  description 
of  the  future  Republic  in  1897.  The  Republic  was  to  be 
"  a  high  road  towards  a  new  formula  of  civilisation."  Such 
phrases,  hollow  and  resounding  like  an  empty  barrel,  have  an 
immense  success  in  Portuguese  politics. 

But  the  same  vagueness  pervades  business.     In  business 
the  Portuguese  appears  incurably  careless  and  combines  with 

this  fault  the  most  meticulous  scruples.     The 
Capacity,        result  is  too  often  delay  and  confusion.  There 

as  in  other  matters  the  Portuguese  shows  a 
genius  for  setting  himself  in  the  wrong,  his  real  ability  is 
eclipsed  by  superficial  errors,  the  mistakes  in  estimates  or 
accounts  are  not  always  in  his  favour,  and  the  unscrupulous 
can  easily  take  advantage  of  his  hesitations  and  candour. 


Characteristics  9 

The  personal  element  is  always  present,  and  vanity,  together 
with  much  real  delicacy  of  feeling,  enters  into  business  matters. 
A  fact  this  which  Englishmen  dealing  with  Portuguese  have 
been  slower  to  recognise  in  the  past  than  other  nations.  More- 
over the  Portuguese  is  harassed  out  of  his  wits  by  the  details 
of  business,  he  likes  a  good  lump  sum  down  rather  than  much 
larger  but  gradual  profits,  he  goes  for  the  pounds  and  leaves 
the  pennies  to  look  after  themselves.  If  he  sees  the  advantage 
of  an  enterprise,  he  rarely  combines  with  this  intelligence  the 
necessary  perseverance  and  force  of  character  to  carry  it 
through.  Yet  here  as  always  the  Portuguese  shows  a  marvel- 
lous inclination  to  fritter  away  his  energies  in  matters  of  the 
minutest  interest  and  minor  importance,  an  inability  to  omit, 
to  leave  off.  They  either  have  no  method  or  a  method  so 
minutely  conceived  that  it  is  almost  certain  to  break  down 
in  practice.  Portuguese  scholarship  sometimes  vies  with 
German  in  unprofitable  minuteness.  For  instance,  Alexandre 
Herculano,  the  historian,  wrote  a  few  fine  poems  :  one  of  his 
Portuguese  critics  has  taken  the  trouble  to  ascertain  the  num- 
ber of  verses  (6,800)  contained  in  all  his  original  poems  and 
translations. 

In  religion,  again,  the  same  vagueness.     Many  Portuguese 
prefer  an  undefined  pantheism  and  a  mystic  love  of  Nature 
or     Humanity    to     dogmatic     beliefs.     The 
Religion.        ostentatious    art    of    Roman    Catholic    cere- 
monies and  the  exact  precision  of  Protestant 
services  are  both  in  a  sense  congenial  to  them,  the  former 
appealing  to  their  fondness  for  pomp  and  show,  the  latter  to 
their  quiet  thoughtfulness.     But  neither  the  one  nor  the  other 
affects  them  with  sufficient  force  to  fasten  upon  their  minds  a 
fanaticism  which  is  foreign  to  dreamy  and  comfortable  natures. 
The  Roman  Catholic  religion  exercises  a  greater  influence  on 
the  dramatic  character  of  the  Spanish  than  on  the  essentially 
lyrical  and  idyllic  nature  of  the  Portuguese.     Nor  do  the  latter 
show  any  marked  enthusiasm  for  Protestantism,  although  the 
number  of  Protestants  is  certainly  larger  than  it  is  in  Spain. 


10  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

Perhaps  it  is  too  clear  and  reasonable  for  them.     They  require 
vagueness  and  mystery. 

The  character  of  a  Portuguese  is  much  more  rarely  than 
that  of  a  Spaniard  all  of  one  piece.  The  Spaniard's,  clear-cut 
and  angular,  admits  less  readily  of  contrasts 
Contrasts.  and  contradictions,  whereas  the  very  vague- 
ness of  the  Portuguese  enables  it  to  combine 
opposing  elements.  Certainly,  at  least,  there  would  seem  to 
be  many  puzzling  inconsistencies  in  the  character  of  the 
Portuguese  people.  For  they  are  like  a  quiet  stream  with 
sudden  falls.  They  are  fatalists,  but  with  moments  of  heroic 
rebellion  and  effort,  apathetic,  with  bursts  of  energy  in  private 
and  revolution  in  public  life  ;  kindly  and  docile,  yet  with 
outbreaks  of  harshness  and  arrogance,  indifferent  yet  with 
fugitive  enthusiasms  and  a  real  love  of  progress  and  change. 
They  are  mystic  and  poetical  with  intervals  of  intense  utili- 
tarianism, erratically  practical,  falling  from  idle  dreams  to  a 
keen  relish  for  immediate  profit.  They  combine  vanity  with 
diffidence  and  pessimism;  naivete,  which  makes  them  the 
butt  of  Spanish  stories,  with  slyness,  whereby  they  have  their 
revenge ;  indolence  with  love  of  sport  and  adventure ;  respect 
for  the  feelings  of  others  with  fondness  for  satire,  sarcasm,  and 
ridicule.  They  go  easily  from  heights  of  rapture  to  depths  of 
melancholy  and  suicidal  despair,  from  frank  trustfulness  to 
extremes  of  suspicion  and  intrigue,  and  their  dreamy  thought- 
fulness  passes  at  rare  intervals  to  explosions  of  passion  and 
abuse. 

The  fact  is  that  both  in  life  and  literature  they  are  incorri- 
gibly romantic,  and  when  they  turn  from  their  romantic 
dreams  to  reality  they  are  peculiarly  exposed 
the  Idea?00     to  the  danger  of  not  considering  it  worth  an 
effort.    They  let  things  be,  they  easily  per- 
suade themselves  that  things  must  be  as  they  are,  or  that 
they  are  as  they  in  words  imagine  them  ;    and  so  in  their 
sauidade  for  some  impossible  ideal  they  sink  into  desleixo  and 
drift    (deixarse-ir,   deixarse-estar).     Or    the   Portuguese   will 


Characteristics  1 1 

continue  to  live  in  his  romanticism  and  ignore  reality  altoge- 
ther ;  his  vanity  helps  him  to  ignore  it ;  he  will  wear  cheap 
and  garish  chains  and  rings  and  trinkets  and  imagine  himself 
rich,  he  will  eke  out  the  picture  by  the  help  of  his  quick 
imagination  and  ever-ready  flow  of  words,  heaping  rhetoric 
and  exaggeration,  and  in  his  vagueness  drifting  ere  he  is 
aware  into  falsehood.  Then,  if  his  efforts  to  impose  the 
picture  of  his  imagining  on  others  at  his  own  valuation  fail, 
he  will  feel  hurt  by  their  brutal  directness,  their  incapacity 
to  see  that  a  mere  string  of  words  may  move  mountains. 

They  are  taxed  with  laziness,  but  it  should  at  least  be 

observed  that  the  laziness  is  not  due  to  lack  of  energy,  but 

rather  to  the  conviction  that  "  it  is  not  worth 

"  Desleixo."     while  " — desleixo.     When  a  thing  does  appear 

to  be  worth  while  the  desleixo  disappears  like 

a  cast-off  mask.     The  amount  of  work  achieved,  for  instance, 

by     some     Portuguese     politicians     or     men-of -letters     is 

extraordinarily  large. 

More  serious  is  the  accusation  that  they  do  not  know  what 
the  word  justice  means,  hate  or  love,  acquit  or  condemn, 
fawn  or  bully,  persecute  or  place  on  a  pinnacle  as  occasion 
offers,  and  lose  all  sense  of  fair  play  in  their  vindictiveness. 
But  after  all  it  is  the  attraction  of  the  Latin  temperament 
that  it  is  quick  and  impulsive,  even  if  it  therefore  rarely  attains 
that  impartial  justice  which  is  all-important  for  the  ruling 
of  an  Empire,  but  the  absence  of  which  certainly  adds  a 
picturesque  and  unforeseen  element  to  life. 

Unhappily    the    Portuguese    delicacy    often    meets    with 

rougher  manners  in  foreigners  and  shrinks  as  from  a  rebuff. 

The  Portuguese  himself  is  excessively  sensi- 

Foreigners!        tive'  and  he  wil1  8°  out  of  his  way  anci  sacrince 
his  own  comfort  and  indolence  in  order  not 

to  hurt  the  feelings  of  others,  perhaps  in  some  trifling  matter 
of  which  the  person  thus  contemplated,  especially  if  he  ,is  a 
foreigner,  remains  serenely  unaware.  The  Portuguese  do 
not  know  how  to  treat  foreigners.  This  may  seem  a  strange 


12  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

statement  to  those  who  have  visited  Portugal  and  experienced 
the  kindness  and  courtesy  of  high  and  low  on  all  sides.  But 
they  make  too  great  a  difference  between  themselves  and 
foreigners,  and  have  an  almost  morbid  desire  to  stand  well 
in  the  eyes  of  the  stranger,  to  appear  civilised  and  bien  eleves. 
On  one  occasion  when  a  spirited  affray  was  proceeding  in  the 
Rocio  of  Lisbon,  and  several  persons  were  killed  and  wounded, 
a  Portuguese  spectator  did  not  seem  in  the  least  concerned 
by  the  fact  that  men  were  being  shot  down,  but  much  con- 
cerned that  it  should  be  witnessed  by  foreigners.  "  A  nice 
thing  for  foreigners  to  see,"  was  all  he  said.  Outwardly  he 
pays  too  much  deference  to  the  foreigner,  and  one  cannot  help 
suspecting  that  all  the  time  he  is  aware  of  his  own  greater 
delicacy  and  of  the  poor  foreigner's  ill  manners.  Being  self- 
conscious  and  susceptible  and,  moreover,  himself  intimately 
persuaded  that  Portugal  is  a  backward  country  unworthy  of 
Paris  or  London's  civilisation,  he  does  not  conceive  that  the 
foreigner  may  be  making  comparisons  favourable  to  the 
country  he  is  visiting,  but  easily  imagines  that  he  is  slighting 
or  smiling  at  him  and  his  customs.  His  own  love  of  satire 
and  ridicule  which  is  apt  to  paralyse  his  private  initiative  and 
political  action,  makes  him  prone  to  suspect  ridicule  in  others. 
He  will  then  brood  silently  over  his  offended  feelings,  and 
nurse  his  susceptibilities  till  they  have  vent  in  one  of  those 
sudden  outbreaks  not  unknown  to  quiet  natures.  But  the 
Portuguese,  despite  his  exaggerated  politeness  towards  the 
stranger  in  his  land,  and  a  very  real  and  hospitable  wish  to  be 
of  help  to  him,  does  not  love  foreigners.  A  Spanish  writer 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  Vicente  Espinel,  described  the 
Portuguese  as  "  gente  idolatra  de  si  propria,  que  no  estima  en 
nada  el  resto  del  mundo."  If  he  despised  foreigners  then,  it  is 
scarcely  to  be  wondered  at  if  he  should  dislike  or  distrust  them 
now.  Vast  colonies  and  the  lordship  of  the  sea,  which  were 
once  Portugal's,  are  now  in  the  hands  of  other  nations,  and 
she  never  forgets  this.  She  considers  herself  to  be,  like  the 
fallen  Napoleon,  at  once  "  conqueror  and  captive  of  the 


Characteristics  13 

earth."  Were  Germany  mistress  of  the  seas,  and  London 
fallen  from  its  high  estate  to  a  provincial  destiny,  the  English 
would  probably  feel  some  bitterness  towards  not  only  their 
German  conquerors  but  all  foreigners. 

And  if  the  Portuguese  does  not  easily  forget  that  Portugal 
was  once  the  greatest  empire  in  Europe,  he  considers  that 
other  nations  forget  it  too  often.  It  may 
Dream  of  foe  that  other  nations  sometimes  do  not  allow 
Splendour.  sufficiently  for  the  fact  that  without  pioneer 
Portugal  their  own  empires  had  been  less 
easy  of  acquisition,  but  it  would  certainly  be  to  Portugal's 
advantage  were  she  herself  to  forget  it  occasionally.  Under 
modern  conditions  it  is  of  little  use  for  a  penniless  person  to 
dwell  on  the  fact  that  his  ancestors  possessed  vast  estates  : 
he  must  make  the  best  of  his  present  poverty,  and,  if  he  has 
some  estates  left  which  cost  him  more  than  they  bring  in,  he 
will  think  no  shame  to  sell  part  in  order  to  be  able  to  administer 
the  rest — always  provided  he  can  find  a  purchaser.  But  the 
majority  of  Portuguese  reject  indignantly  the  idea  of  parting 
with  an  inch  of  their  Indian  or  African  possessions.  Rather 
their  thoughts  run  to  extending  their  territory,  to  the  con- 
struction of  a  fleet,  or  the  conquest  of  Spain.  Even  the  idea 
of  a  general  subscription  among  the  whole  population  is  not 
unknown,  with  a  view  to  securing  one  or  more  of  these  objects. 
Dr.  Affonso  Costa  knew  his  countrymen  well  when  he  promised 
them  a  large  surplus,  to  be  employed  in  building  a  fleet.  Such 
is  the  great  but  misguided  patriotism  of  the  Portuguese 
people,  while  the  interests  and  well-being  of  Portugal  itself, 
which  only  needs  proper  development  to  become  a  flourishing 
country,  are  overlooked.  They  dream  of  high-flown  projects 
and  the  work  immediately  to  hand  is — postponed.  The 
Portuguese  people  is  not  really  indifferent,  or  at  least  its  indif- 
ference is  confined  to  the  play  of  party  politics  in  Lisbon. 
In  the  fall  and  rise  of  a  ministry,  in  the  debates  of  Parliament 
or  in  the  elections,  the  interest  of  the  country  at  large  is  of 
the  slightest.  The  expectations  of  the  people  have  been  too 


14  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

frequently  disappointed  for  it  to  set  great  store  now  by 
political  promises,  but  the  Portuguese  have  a  real  love  of  their 
country  for  which  they  are  willing  to  sacrifice  much — every- 
thing, it  sometimes  seems,  except  personal  vanity  and  party 
intrigues. 

Another  apparent  inconsistency  is  the  democratic  feeling 
which,  in  private  life,  prevails  in  Portugal  to  a  greater  degree 

than  perhaps  in  any  other  country,  social 
Address         distinctions  being  often   ignored  there,   not 

only  by  those  who  are  not  distinguished  but 
by  those  who  are,  to  an  extent  that  would  be  utterly  impossible 
in  England.  For  this  democratic  usage  has  to  be  reconciled 
with  the  widespread  vanity  of  the  Portuguese.  In  place  of 
the  plain  "  you  "  employed  in  England  in  addressing  king 
or  cobbler,  there  are  in  Portugal  all  kinds  of  gradations,  from 
Vossa  Excellencia  to  0  senhor  (in  the  third  person) ,  Vossemece, 
or  the  more  familiar  Vosse,  which  even  so  is  a  contraction  of 
"  Your  Worship."  Ladies  are  always  addressed  as  Vossa 
Excellencia,  and  are  given  the  title  of  Dona  (  =  the  Spanish 
Dona).  The  title  Dom  is  only  given  to  men  belonging  to  old 
aristocratic  families,  whereas  in  Spain  the  use  of  Don  is,  of 
course,  far  more  general,  and  in  South  America  it  descends 
still  further,  corresponding  there,  indeed,  to  the  English  use 
of  "  Mr."  instead  of  "  Esq."  Letters  are  often  addressed  to 
the  Most  Illustrious,  Most  Excellent,  Senhor,  and,  generally, 
the  Portuguese  are  more  ceremonious  even  than  the  Spanish. 
The  humanist,  Luis  Vives,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  com- 
plained of  the  pomposity  of  address  then  beginning  in  Spain 
(i.e.,  Spain  and  Portugal)  and  Italy  :  and  soon,  he  said,  we 
shall  be  saying  "  Your  Deity  " — mox,  ut  opinor,  Deltas. 
But  the  fiery  Spanish  dignity  is  absent,  although  the  Portu- 
guese have  a  quiet  resolution  and  dignity  of  their  own,  and 
their  gentle  sadness  rarely  sinks  to  a  spiritless  despondency, 
and  still  more  rarely  to  the  grovelling  abjection — lowest  of  the 
low — described  by  Byron. 

The    Portuguese   peasantry,    especially,  is   gifted    with  a 


Characteristics  15 

delicacy  and  intelligence  which  make  life  pleasant  and  poverty 

no  hardship  in  that  climate.      The  illiterate  are  often  the 

flower  and  cream  of  the  nation.     They  are 

Peasants  a^e  to  exPress  themselves  with  fluency  and 
correctness,  in  fact  you  will  often  find  a  peas- 
ant's speech  purer  and  more  refined  in  accent  than  that  of  an 
educated  Portuguese,  and  will  be  amazed  at  the  clearness  and 
delicacy  of  tone  and  expression  coming  from  a  person  barefoot 
and  in  tatters.  Thrice  fortunate  they  who  can  associate  and 
converse  with  the  peasants  during  the  summer  romaria  or  vil- 
lage festa,  or  as  they  sit  round  the  winter  fire  (a  lareira),  or 
gather  for  some  great  common  task,  a  shearing  (tosquia)  or 
esfolhada  (separating  the  maize  cob  from  its  sheath),  for  they 
are  certain  to  glean  a  rich  store  of  proverbs,  folk-lore,  and 
philology,  and  will  learn  much  about  spirits  and  witches. 
These  peasants  have  poetical  imagination,  witty  speech,  no 
dearth  of  ideas,  a  ready  sympathy,  and,  moreover,  a  sobriety, 
patience  and  self-control  which  are  the  more  remarkable  in 
that  by  nature,  although  not  quick,  they  are  impulsive  and 
extraordinarily  sensitive.  It  may  be  said  without  exaggera- 
tion that  the  Portuguese  people,  for  all  its  colossal  ignorance 
and  lack  of  letters,  is  one  of  the  most  civilised  and  intelligent 
in  Europe. 

It  is  full  of  superstitions,  and  in  few  countries — Ireland  again 

naturally  occurs  to  the  mind — can  there  be  more  legends  and 

charms    and    incantations,    ignorance    thus 

Folk-Lore.  fostering  an  immense  popular  literature  in 
prose  and  verse.  The  varieties  of  sorcerers 
and  diviners  are  many  :  there  are  benzedores  and  imaginarios, 
magicos  and  agoureiros,  bruxas  and  feiticeiras,  etc.,  etc. 
Only  during  the  last  thirty  years  has  this  begun  to  be  a  written 
literature,  thanks  to  the  brilliant  initiative  and  untiring 
researches  of  Z.  Consiglieri  Pedroso,  A.  T.  Pires,  Snr.  F. 
Adolpho  Coelho,  Snr.  Leite  de  Vasconcellos,  Snr.  Theophilo 
Braga  and  others.  Round  every  hill  and  stream  of  the  country 
has  the  people  woven  some  quaint  fancy  or  preserved  some 


16  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

ancient  myth  or  fact.  To  take  a  solitary  instance  :  the 
great  rock  (Pedra  Amarella),  above  the  convent  of  Pena 
Longa,  at  the  foot  of  the  Serra  de  Cintra,  is  covered  with  yellow 
moss.  What  is  the  explanation  of  this  ?  That  the  moss  grew 
there,  you  say.  But  the  Portuguese  people  is  not  likely  to 
dismiss  anything  in  heaven  or  earth  with  four  words.  The 
fact  is  that  an  old  woman,  believing  this  rock  to  contain  a 
hidden  treasure,  was  anxious  to  break  it  open  and  to  that 
purpose  kept  throwing  eggs  at  it.  She  did  not  succeed  in 
her  object,  but  the  rock  remains  covered  with  the  yolks  of  the 
eggs.  The  Portuguese  people  is  especially  devoted  to  music 
flowers,  dance  and  song.  The  humblest,  most  ramshackle 
cottage  will  have  an  old  tin  of  carnations  on  its  window  ledge 
or  hanging  anyhow  from  the  wall.  Many  of  the  flowers  have 
popular  names  of  no  little  charm.  Goivo,  the  old  Portuguese 
word  for  joy,  is  given  both  to  the  stock  and  the  wallflower, 
the  fuchsia  is  lagrimas  (tears),  anemones  beijinhos  (little 
kisses),  the  roadside  iris  is  lirio  (lily),  any  downhanging 
creeper  is  chorao  (weeper).  A  common  creeper  of  that  name 
grows  extraordinarily  fast,  and  once  boasted  that  it  would  scale 
heaven,  whereupon  it  was  sentenced  to  advance  always  in  a 
downward  direction. 

Of  the  fascinating  popular  quatrains  (quadras)  an  immense 
collection  might  be  formed,  indeed  some  of  those  already  in 
existence  are  not  trifling,  as,  for  instance,  the 
10'000  Cantos  populares  portuguezes,  collected 
in  four  volumes  by  A.  Thomaz  Pires  (Elvas, 
1902-10).  Those  who  are  alarmed  by  so  great  a  number 
may  read  the  Cancioneiro  popular  (Porto,  1914),  selected  by 
Snr.  Jaime  Cortesao,  which  contains  563.  Or,  still  better, 
make  a  selection  of  their  own,  writing  them  down  at  the  dicta- 
tion of  many  a  peasant  who  can  himself  neither  write  nor  read. 
These  cantigas  or  quadras  spring  up  continually  like  mush- 
rooms, and  perish  unrecorded,  or  go  from  mouth  to  mouth 
of  the  illiterate  in  endless  variation.  They  are  delightful 
examples  of  unpremeditated  art,  many  of  them  showing  real 


Characteristics  1 7 

delicacy  and  poetical  imagination,  more  so  than  the  melancholy 
fado  or  ballad  of  fate  of  the  professional  ladistas.  A  vague 
melancholy  underlies  most  of  these  cantigas.  Sadly  in  the 
soft  summer  evenings  many  a  can$ao  perdida  is  sung  to  the 
slow  and  plaintive  accompaniment  of  the  guitar — 

Triste  canta  uma  voz  na  syncope  do  dia. 
(Guerra  Junqueiro,  Os  Simples,  1892)  : 
Com  os  passaros  do  campo 
EU  me  quero  comparar  : 
Andam  vestidos  de  pennas, 
O  seu  allivio  e  cantar. 

(With  the  birds  of  the  air 

I  compare 

My  plight  : 

'Tis  their  solace  to  sing, 

Dark  of  wing 

Is  their  flight.) 

The  pun  on  the  words  pennas  (feathers)  and  penas  (woes)  is 
untranslatable. 

6  mar  alto,  6  mar  alto, 
6  mar  alto  sem  ter  fundo: 
Mais  vale  andar  no  mar 
Do  que  na  boca  do  mundo. 

(O  sea  so  deep,  O  sea  so  deep, 
O  sea  so  deep  beyond  our  ken  : 
Better  to  go  upon  the  sea 
Than  upon  the  lips  of  men.) 

Os  teus  olhos,  6  menina, 
Sao  gentias  da  Guine  : 
Da  Guine  por  serem  pretos 
Gentios  por  nao  terem  fe. 

With  this  cantiga  readers  of  Julio  Diniz  may  be  already 
familiar.     It  occurs  in  his  Ineditos  (1900). 

(Heathen  are  thine  eyes,  O  maiden, 
And  from  Guinea  must  they  be  : 
From  Guinea  eyes  that  are  so  black, 
Heathen  that  look  so  faithlessly.) 

2 (2404) 


18  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

6  rosa   d'este   canteiro, 
Deixa-te  estar  ate  ver, 
Que  eu  vou  ao  Brazil  e  volto, 
Rosinha,  p'ra  te  colher. 

(O  rose  that  flowerest  here, 
Here  till  we  meet  remain, 
For,  little  rose,  to  Brazil  I  go, 
Then  to  cull  thee  come  again.) 

Chamaste  me  trigueirinha, 
En  nao  me  cscandalizei : 
Trigueirinha  e  a  pimenta 
E  vae  a  mesa  do  rei. 

(Brown  of  hue  you  called  me, 
Nor  to  sting  were  able  : 
Brown  of  hue  is  pepper, 
Yet  it  goes  to  the  King's  table.) 

6  vida  de  minha  vida, 
Quanto  tenho  tudo  e  teu, 
S6  a  minha  alminha  nao  : 
Hei  de  da-la  a  quem  m'a  deu. 

(Life  thou  in  whom  I  live, 

All  that  I  have  is  for  thee  : 

Only  my  soul  (animula)  must  I  give 

Unto  Him  who  gave  it  me.) 

Quando  era  solteirinha, 

Trazia  fitas  e  lacos  ! 

Agora  que  sou  casada 

Trago  os  meus  nlhos  nos  bra 905. 

(When  I  was  unwed, 

O  the  ribbons  and  the  laces  ! 

Now  each  arm  instead 

A  fair  babe  embraces.) 

Nos  mais  rijos  temporaes 
O  vento  solta  gemidos  : 
Gemidos  soltam  eguaes 
Amantes  quando  trahidos. 

(In  the  stress  of  the  tempest 
The  wind  makes  moan  : 
So  moaneth  the  lover 
Betrayed  and  alone.) 


Characteristics  19 

O  annel  que  tu  me  deste 
Era  de  vidro  e  quebrou-se  : 
O  amor  que  tu  me  tinhas 
Era  pouco  e  acabou-se. 

(The  ring  that  them  gav'st  me 
Was  of  glass  and  is  broken, 
And  ended  the  love 
By  thy  lips  lightly  spoken.) 

Eu  direi  que  em  peito  amante 
Inda  amor  excede  o  mar  : 
Pois  que  o  mar  tem  a  vazante, 
E  amor  tem  so  preamar. 

(Love  is  more  ev'n  than  the  sea 
In  a  lover's  breast,  I  know  : 
For  love  is  ever  at  the  full 
While  the  sea's  tides  ebb  and  flow.) 

Aqui  estou  a  tua  porta 
Como  o  feixinho  de  lenha, 
A  espera  da  resposta 
Que  de  teus  olhos  me  venha. 

(Here  like  a  bundle  of  sticks 
Stand  I  still  at  thy  door, 
An  answer  from  thy  eyes 
Awaiting  evermore.) 

Cada  vez  que  vejo  vir 
Gaivotas  a  beira-mar, 
Creio  que  sao  os  meus  amores 
Que  me  desejao  fallar. 

(When  the  seagulls  come  flying 

In  from  the  sea, 

I  think  'tis  my  love 

That  would  speak  with  me.) 
Cantas  tu,  cantarei  eu 
Que  o  cantar  e  alegria, 
Tambem  os  anjos  cantaram 
Can9oes  a  Virgem  Maria. 

(I  will  sing  as  thou  art  singing, 
Joy  is  in  the  heart  of  song  ; 
Songs,  too,  to  the  Virgin  ringing 
Came  once  from  the  angel  throng.) 


20  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

Anyone  with  a  spirit  of  enterprise  and  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  Portuguese  might  collect  a  goodly  crop  of  such  cantigas, 
together  with  thousands  of  delightful  expres- 
sions  and  ^y^g5  peculiar  to  each  region 
of  Portugal.  Minho  especially,  that  charming 
province  of  crystal  streams  and  cool  maize-fields,  offers  a 
wide  scope.  But  it  is  a  narrowing  opportunity,  since  education, 
however  slow  its  progress  in  Portugal,  is  gradually  advancing. 
Many  of  the  cantigas,  composed  by  illiterate  persons,  are  not 
intended  to  survive  the  occasion  that  gave  them  birth.  Hence 
their  naturalness  and  charm.  The  lovely  Greek  epigrams  show 
a  more  conscious  art.  They  are  the  perfect  daffodils  and 
hyacinths,  whereas  the  Portuguese  cantigas  are  the  forgotten 
celandines  and  primroses  of  the  lanes  and  woods.  In  1911 
died  an  old  workman  of  Setubal,  Antonio  Maria  Euzebio 
(born  in  1820),  who  could  neither  read  nor  write,  but  had 
composed  verses  with  great  ease  from  an  early  age.  A  volume 
of  his  verses  was  published  in  1901,  with  introduction  by 
Snr.  Theophilo  Braga  and  Snr.  Guerra  Junqueiro.  Of  a 
poetic  art  as  such  he  had  no  glimmering,  but,  in  Portugal  at 
least,  such  ignorance  would  help  rather  than  injure  him  as 
a  poet. 

The  Portuguese  are  richly  gifted  by  nature,  but,  in  matters 
of  art  or  in  artificial  surroundings,  their  natural  taste  some- 
times seems  to  desert  them.   Corruptio  optimi. 
and^rt         Under    circumstances    which    do    not    allow 
them  to  be  themselves  some  of  the  aspersions 
of  an  eighteenth  century  writer  may  be  true  of  them  :    "Us 
sont  jaloux  au  supreme  degre,"  wrote  the  author  of  the 
Description  de  la  mile  de  Lisbonne  (Amsterdam,  1738),  "  dis- 
simules,   vindicatifs,   railleurs,   vains  et  presomptueux  sans 
sujet."     (The  same  writer  admits  that  they  have  great  virtues  : 
"  Ils  ont  avec  beaucoup  de  vivacite  et  de  penetration  un 
attachement  extraordinaire  pour  leur  Prince  ;    ils  sont  fort 
secrets,    fideles    amis,    genereux,    charitables    envers    leurs 
parens,    sobres    dans    leur    manger,  ne   mangeant   presque 


Characteristics  21 

que  du  poisson,  ris,  vermicelli,  legumes,  confitures,  et  ne  buvant 
pour  1'ordinaire  que  de  1'eau/')  The  family  life  of  a  Portu- 
guese, especially  in  some  country  quinta,  is  extremely  attrac- 
tive, and  he  only  becomes  uninteresting  when  he  follows  the 
customs  of  foreign  nations.  So  long  as  he  is  natural,  few 
nations  excel  him ;  when  he  ceases  to  be  natural  he  lags 
woefully  behind  in  the  ruts  of  foreign  imitation.  There  was 
a  grain  of  truth  in  the  remark  of  a  critic  that  Camoes,  with 
a  great  lyrical  gift,  was  unsuccessful  in  the  sonnet  owing  to  his 
attempt  to  introduce  naturalness  into  an  essentially  artificial 
form.  The  Portuguese,  where  their  love  of  nature  does  not 
help  them,  are  left  at  the  mercy  of  extravagance  and 
tawdriness. 

Not  that  the  ordinary  artisan  does  not  turn  out  much  good 
honest  work.  Indeed,  while  the  Spanish  make  things  for 
show  rather  than  for  use,  and  the  French  for 
a  little  of  both'  the  Portuguese  agrees  with 
the  English  in  making  them  with  a  regard  for 
comfort  and  a  sublime  unconcern  for  the  look  of  them.  And 
in  this  no  doubt  they  show  their  good  sense.  But  they  are 
not  artistic.  This  is  shown  in  a  thousand  ways,  in  the  curve 
of  a  chair,  the  finish  of  a  book-case,  in  their  buildings,  in  the 
colour  of  their  dress  and  of  the  wash  for  their  houses,  in  which 
squashed  hues,  and  especially  pink,  predominate  ;  in  the 
shape  of  the  water-jars,  in  which  the  soul  of  a  Latin  people 
is  often  expressed.  (The  Portuguese  jars  are  often  rather 
useful  than  ornamental,  squat  in  shape,  fashioned  to  contain 
the  greatest  possible  quantity  of  water,  and  with  but  one 
handle,  for  use,  instead  of  two,  for  art's  sake.)  In  the  con- 
struction of  modern  houses,  as  in  many  matters  of  daily  life, 
the  Portuguese  makes  comfort  or  a  saving  of  trouble  the 
principal  consideration.  Their  ancient  buildings  in  which, 
indeed,  foreign  architects  had  no  little  part — Batalha,  for 
instance,  or  Alcobaca — can  vie  in  beauty  with  those  of  any 
country.  But,  although  Manoeline  architecture  in  some  cases 
may  have  justified  its  existence,  in  principle  it  was  an  outrage 


22  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

against  pure  Gothic,  and  a  similar  tastelessness  may  be  noted 
in  daily  life  at  the  present  time.  The  undertakers  add  a 
horror  to  death  in  other  cities  besides  Lisbon,  but  in  no  other 
can  the  grandest  funerals  be  marked  by  a  more  grotesque  and 
fantastic  ugliness.  Nor  is  it  easy  to  forget  a  coffin  at  a  funeral 
in  the  provinces — not  that  of  a  child.  It  was  bright  pink  with 
silver  scales.  It  is  most  curious,  this  tendency  to  tinsel  on  the 
part  of  a  people  which  appears  to  have  natural  good  taste. 
Perhaps  it  is  an  importation  from  the  East. 

Certainly  foreign  influences  and  a  half-education  are 
extremely  dangerous  in  Portugal.  In  many  parts  of  the 
country  the  people  is  still  unspoilt,  and  the 
Soft  Wax.  demagogue  and  politician  appear  like  a  bull 
in  a  china  shop,  with  vast  possibilities  of 
damage  and  destruction.  Portugal  is  but  a  little  wax,  wrote 
the  novelist  Eca  de  Queiroz  (1843-1900).  The  Portuguese 
people  is  "  soft  wax  "  repeated  Snr.  Guerra  Junqueiro  in  1896  : 
"  What  we  need  is  a  great  sculptor."  The  history  of  Portugal 
has  been  the  history  of  a  few  great  men  who  have  passed  on  the 
torch  of  her  glories  from  century  to  century,  a  Nun'  Alvares, 
the  soldier-saint,  or  the  splendid  Affonso  d'Albuquerque, 
who  often  found  it  as  difficult  to  cope  with  his  own  followers  as 
with  the  enemy  in  the  East.  But  for  all  that  Portugal  is  a  land 
of  strongly-rooted  and  noble  traditions,  and  these  the  required 
sculptor  must  take  into  account  if  he  is  to  be  successful  in  his 
task.  It  would  be  wrong  to  infer  that  the  anonymous  mass 
that  forms  the  background  to  those  great  figures  of  the  past 
is  characterless.  For,  beneath  the  apathy,  the  docility,  the 
contradictions  of  the  Portuguese  people  remains  something 
perhaps  not  very  easy  to  define,  but  which  has  an  intimate 
peculiar  flavour,  something  pliant,  adaptable,  insinuating  but 
with  a  real  will  and  persistency  of  its  own.  Potential,  it  may 
be,  rather  than  actual,  but  certainly  a  sound  and  promising 
basis  for  growth  and  development,  if  properly  directed. 

"  What  is  urgent,"  to  quote  again  Snr.  Guerra  Junqueiro, 
"  is  not  a  social  or  a  political  but  a  moral  revolution."  "  Quant 


Characteristics  23 

a  la  moralite,"  wrote  M.  Leon  Poinsard  later,  in  1910,  "  elle 
semble  plutot  en  voie  de  diminuer  "  (Le  Portugal  Inconnu). 
A  few  years  earlier  a  Lisbon  newspaper,  0  Diario  de  Noticias, 
in  a  leading  article  (16th  September,  1902)  deplored  the 
podriddo  moral  of  Portuguese  society,  the  perversdo  de  caracteres 
e  desbragamento  dos  costumes  politicos."  Such  remarks  apply 
usually  to  Lisbon  rather  than  to  Portugal  as  a  whole.  In 
village  life,  considering  the  circumstances,  the  absolute  lack 
of  direction,  the  landed  gentry  absentee,  the  authority  of  the 
priest  undermined,  morality  may  be  said  to  stand  remarkably 
high.  And  the  great  mass  of  the  Portuguese  people  is, 
emphatically,  desoriente  rather  than  degenerate.  They  would 
answer  readily — yes,  even  Beckford's  Lisbon  canaille — to  a 
leader  capable  of  leading  something  more  than  a  pack  of 
yelping  political  parasites. 

It  must  always  be  remembered  that  the  foreigner  often  views 
the  Portuguese  at  his  worst,   in   an  artificial  atmosphere, 

rarely  in  his  natural  life  and  surroundings. 

The  j|e  seldom  has  occasion  to  see  him  in  his 

at'Home.6      home  life,  in  which  the  real  affectionateness 

of  his  nature  is  evident,  nor  to  realise  the 
nobility  and  delicacy  of  his  dreams  and  ideals  which  are  so 
often  shattered  by  harsh  reality,  and  the  genuine  kindliness 
which  proves  that  his  politeness  and  courtesy  are  not  merely 
superficial.  If  they  have  not  the  immediate  attraction  of 
some  other  nations,  they  prove,  on  longer  acquaintance,  to 
be  a  people  not  only  pleasant  but  of  a  real  good-nature,  of  a 
child-like  simplicity  beneath  their  vanity,  and  with  a  certain 
strength  and  determination  for  all  their  apparent  pliancy. 
Intensely  susceptible  and  easily  driven  by  rudeness  and  vio- 
lence into  furtive,  hypocritical  and  vindictive  tactics,  they 
answer  with  extreme  goodwill  to  any  show  of  friendliness  and 
respect.  If  they  are  capable  rather  of  occasional  heroic 
actions  than  of  securing  a  gradual  prosperity,  they  are  never- 
theless a  people  peculiarly  gifted,  under  proper  guidance,  to 
achieve  what,  presumably,  is  the  end  to  which  modern 


24  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

civilisation  aspires — a  state  of  peace  and  culture  with  ever- 
widening  and  deepening  international  relations.  Only,  of 
course,  such  relations  can  never  be  set  on  a  satisfactory  basis 
by  sacrificing  anything  that  is  genuinely  Portuguese.  For  a 
nation  can  hardly  look  for  respect  which  has  nothing  of  its 
own  to  offer,  and  prides  itself  exclusively  on  its  foreign 
imitations.  And  the  Portuguese  of  all  peoples  will  find  their 
best  models  in  their  own  past  history  and  literature.  Voltaire, 
not  a  bad  judge  in  the  matter  of  wit,  called  the  Portuguese 
"  une  nation  spirituelle,"  and,  in  spite  of  all  their  national 
misfortunes,  a  witty  nation  they  remain.  It  will  be  well  if 
their  wit  be  directed  not  to  pull  down  national  customs  and 
institutions,  but — as  by  many  writers  of  the  sixteenth  century 
— against  those  who  ape  foreign  manners. 


CHAPTER   II 

POPULATION   AND   EMPLOYMENT 

THE  latest  census  of  the  population,  that  is,  the  returns  at  the 

end  of  the  year  1911, 1  presents  some  interesting  figures.  This 

is  the  fifth  census  taken  in  Portugal.     The 

first,  in  1864,  gave  the  population  as  4,1 18,410, 

in  the  census  of  1878  it  was  4,698,984,  of  1890 

5,049,729,   and   of    1900   5,423,132.     That   of    1911   gives   a 

population  of  5,960,056.     Thus,  in  fifty  years  the  population 

of  Portugal  has  increased  by  nearly  a  third,  and,  although 

something  must  be  allowed  for  the  more  accurate  returns  in 

recent  years,  is  evidently  in  no  danger  of  diminishing,  in  spite 

of  increasing  emigration.     Moreover,  there  are  no  less  than 

211,813   families    (over   a    seventh    of    the   whole   number, 

1,411,327)  of  seven  or  more  persons. 

The  density  is  65  persons  to  the  square  kilometre,  as  com- 
pared with  44  for  the  average  of  all  Europe,  Portugal  coming 
eleventh  on  the  list  of  European  countries, 

Population  S?ain  nineteenth  (39  persons  to  the  square 
kilometre).  The  district  which  shows  the 
largest  increase  is  that  of  Minho  (including  the  country  be- 
tween the  rivers  Douro  and  Minho),  which  was  already  over- 
crowded in  1900  with  162  inhabitants  to  the  square  kilometre. 
It  now  has  178.  Estremadura  (which  includes  Lisbon)  has  also 
risen  considerably — from  68  to  80.  The  other  provinces  show 
a  much  slighter  increase  (Beira  Alta  from  88  to  95,  Algarve 
from  50  to  54,  Beira  Baixa  from  39  to  42,  Traz  os  Montes  from 
39  to  40,  Alemtejo  from  17  to  20). 

Other  points  of  interest  are  the  increase  of  the  city  popula- 
tion2 at  the  rate  of  15  per  cent.,  one-third  more,  that  is, 

1  Censo  da  Populafdo  de  Portugal.    No   1°  de  Dezembro  de   1911. 
Lisboa,  Imprensa  Nacional,  1913. 

2  The  only  towns  with  over  20,000  inhabitants  are  Lisbon  (435,359), 
Oporto    (194,009),    Setubal    (30,346),    Braga    (24,647),    and    Coimbra 

25 


26  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

than  the  rate  of  increase  for  the  country  population,  and 
the  decrease  in  the  number  of  foreigners  by  some  500  since 
the  beginning  of  the  century  (41,197  in  1911,  41,728  in  1900, 

41,339  in  1890).      The  number  of  Spaniards 
Foreigners.       has  fallen  from  27,029  in   1900  to  20,517  in 

1911,  the  French  from  1,841  to  1,832,  Italians 
from  561  to  547,  Belgians  from  188  to  170.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  number  of  Brazilians  has  increased  from  7,594 
to  12,143,  of  English  from  2,292  to  2,516,  Germans  from 
929  to  969. 

In  the  census  of  1900  there  were  108-8  women  to  100  men 
in  the  population  of  Portugal.     During  the  next  ten  years 

the   percentage   slightly   increased,    so   that 

Population       there  are  now  110  women  to  10°  men> that  is> 
4  per  cent,  more  than  in  any  other  country 

of  Europe.  The  census  of  1911  gives  the  number  of  persons 
over  eighty  years  of  age  in  Portugal  as  nearly  one  per  cent, 
of  the  entire  population  :  52,783.  Of  these  31,891  were 
women,  and  20,892  men.  These  figures  are  subdivided  as 
follows:  Women,  between  80  and  84  years,  21,154;  from 
85  to  89  years,  6,489  ;  from  90  to  94  years,  2,900  ;  from  95  to 
99  years,  992 ;  over  100  years,  265.  The  corresponding 
numbers  of  men  are  14,256,  4,452,  1,554,  500,  130. 
This  says  much  for  the  excellence  of  the  climate  and 
the  hardiness  of  the  race.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
mortality  among  the  children  of  the  poor  is  enormous : 
it  is  quite  common  for  two  to  grow  up  out  of  a  family  of 
seven  or  nine. 

Emigration  from  Portugal  has  increased  on  a  vast  scale  in 

recent  years.    The  official  statistics  for  1909  (published  in 

1912)  gave  the  number  of  emigrants  as  30,288. 

Emigration.      Other  statistics  for  the  same  year  gave  38,213, 

of  whom  30,580  were  bound  for  Brazil.     Both 

figures  are  well  below  the  truth  if  the  clandestine  emigration 

is  taken  into  account.     It  is  impossible  to  keep  count  of  those 

who  cross  the  frontier  into  Spain,  and  many  even  of  those  who 


Population  and  Employment  27 

emigrate  by  sea  succeed  in  escaping  registration.  In  1908 
the  number  of  registered  emigrants  was  35,731,  in  1907  31,312, 
in  1906  27,332,  in  1905  25,594.  Of  the  30,288  emigrants  of 
1909  25,039  were  male  (of  whom  12,822  could  read)  and 
5,249  women  (of  whom  only  804  could  read).  Since  1909 
the  emigration  has  doubled  and  trebled.  A  Republican  news- 
paper, 0  Seculo,1  printed  some  figures  in  1913.  The  writer 
pointed  out  that  there  were  whole  regions  in  Portugal  without 
labourers  for  the  fields,  and  that  whole  families  were  now 
emigrating  as  never  before.  Emigration  agencies  pululam 
por  todo  o  Norte,  fourteen  agencies  being  established  in  Oporto 
alone.  The  Diario  de  Noticias*  declared  that  there  were  tens 
of  leagues  of  uncultivated  land  in  Portugal,  while  over  two 
millions  sterling  of  cereals  were  imported  annually.  In  1912 
the  number  of  emigrants  had  more  than  trebled  since  1902  in 
the  districts  of  Oporto,  Coimbra,  Guarda,  Vianna,  Vizeu,  Villa 
Real,  Braganga,  Leiria  and  Santarem.  In  the  last  five 
districts  it  had  more  than  doubled  since  1910.  The  figures 
given  for  the  district  of  Braganca  were  10,504  in  1912,  6,331 
in  1907,  and  550  in  1902 !  (the  other  chief  increase  being  at 
Villa  Real,  respectively  7,732,  3,140,  and  1,356).  These  are  the 
two  principal  towns  of  Traz  os  Montes.  The  total  number  of 
emigrants  in  1912  bordered  on  100,000  ;  but  in  1914  there  was 
a  notable  decrease.  A  large  number  of  the  emigrants  go  to 
Brazil  (and  indeed  they  are  totally  unfitted  to  go  to  any  country 
of  which  they  do  not  know  the  language),  and  maintain  rela- 
tions with  the  mother  country,  sending  money  home  and 
sometimes  returning  as  enriched  Brazileiros. 

In  Portugal  the  salaries  are  low  and  give  no  great  incentive 
to  labour,  especially  as  they  have  remained  almost  stationary, 

while  the  price  of   food  and  rent   has  risen. 
Salaries.         Even  during  the  long  harvest  days  the  women 

receive  only  a  shilling  a  day  or  even  less  for 
working   perhaps  sixteen  hours  in  the  fields,  the  men  two 

1  llth  February,  1913. 
8  12th  February,  1913. 


28  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

shillings  or  less.  Some  instances  of  wages  are  given  in  M. 
Poinsard's  Le  Portugal  Inconnu.  A  day  labourer  of  the 
Douro  district  receives  200  reis  (  =  tenpence),  an  agricultural 
labourer  in  Alemtejo  250  (500  in  time  of  harvest),  a  carpenter 
of  the  Serra  da  Estrella  320  reis,  a  miner  in  a  lead-mine  near 
Aveiro  350,  a  mason  of  Minho  400,  a  carpenter  of  Braga  400, 
a  weaver  of  GuimarSes  500,  a  mason  of  Lisbon  700,  a  weaver 
of  Lisbon  700,  a  shoemaker's  assistant  at  Coimbra  from 
220  to  440,  a  carpenter  in  Alemtejo  400,  a  dressmaker's 
assistant  in  Lisbon  240. 

Many  families  live  from  day  to  day  and  from  hand  to  mouth 
by  odd  jobs,  and  the  tendency  to  live  thus  precariously  has 
been  increased  by  the  recent  unrest.     They 

live  on  little  or  nothinS'  and  devote  all  their 
energy  and  wits  to  pay  arrears  of  rent  sufficient 
to  prevent  them  from  being  turned  out  of  their  houses,  which 
often  consist  of  but  one  or  two  rooms.  In  one  instance  a 
family  of  seven  lives  in  a  single  room,  the  entire  furniture 
consisting  of  an  old  mattress  in  one  corner.  Needless  to  say, 
the  windows  are  kept  closed  at  night  and  there  is  no  fire- 
place, a  comparatively  rare  thing  in  the  Portuguese  climate. 
(The  cooking  is  done  over  three  stones.)  Far  worse  than 
their  poverty  is  their  ignorance  and  carelessness  of  health  and 
hygiene.  Not  that  these  deficiencies  are  confined  to  the 
peasants  of  Portugal,  but  they  are  most  serious  in  a  hot 
climate.  Little  attention  is  given  to  the  advantages  of  air 
and  water,  and  what  wonder  when  even  educated  persons  pay 
little  heed  to  them.  During  some  days  of  exceptional  heat, 
in  the  summer  of  1913,  the  correspondent  of  a  Lisbon  news- 
paper at  Oporto  wrote  that  the  heat  there  had  been  so  terrible 
that  windows  had  to  be  kept  open  at  night.  And  this  in  a 
climate  which  rarely  gives  excuse  for  closed  windows.  There 
is  no  direction  from  above ;  many  villages  have  not  a  single 
educated  inhabitant,  and  but  few  inhabitants  who  can  write  or 
read,  and  have  not  even  a  church. 

The  mayors  of   many  a  town   and  village  are  too  much 


Population  and  Employment  29 

occupied  with  high  politics  to  think  of  such  sublunary  matters 
as  the  cleanliness  of  the  streets.     Rubbish  is  left  in  the  burning 

sun  for  children  to  play  in,  street,  river,  and 
Sanitation.      cliff  being  polluted  with  it,  and  many  small 

towns  are  in  a  truly  miserable  state.  The 
mayor  of  one  of  them  was  asked  why  a  cart  was  not  sent  to 
collect  the  rubbish,  and  his  answer  was  typical.  Although  it 
was  well  known  that  no  such  cart  was  in  existence,  he  did 
not  say  that  a  cart  would  be  sent  or  that  he  would  see  what 
could  be  done  or  any  other  such  polite  evasion.  He  merely 
said  that  a  cart  is  sent  every  day,  and  there  was  an  end  of  the 
matter.  With  such  simplicity  are  these  questions  solved. 
It  is  worth  while  to  dwell  on  such  matters  since  they  are  of 
more  importance  than  fine-sounding  party  programmes.  The 
local  authorities,  appointed  for  party  reasons,  would  no 
doubt  scout  the  idea  that  anti-clericalism  may  be  of  less  value 
than  the  destruction  of  flies.  They  drive  out  the  "  ominous 
soutane,"  and  the  land,  as  Egypt  of  old,  is  "  corrupted  by 
reason  of  the  swarm  of  flies."  "  The  unhealthiness  of  a  great 
part  of  the  country,  the  crowded  and  sometimes  wretched 
houses,  the  complete  absence  of  any  hygienic  discipline  among 
the  rural  population,  are  other  probable  causes  of  the  lack  of 
energy  of  the  agricultural  labourer,  who  for  the  rest  is  con- 
stitutionally capable  of  great  endurance.  .  .  .  With  notable 
power  of  endurance,  a  climate  which  permits  an  almost 
uninterrupted  activity,  both  for  labourers  and  vegetation, 
the  agricultural  population  of  Portugal  will  have  a  wide 
future  before  it  when  food,  houses,  and  hygiene  are  improved, 
and  many  regions  rendered  more  healthy,  when  irrigation 
and  technical  instruction  are  extended,  crops  better  adapted 
to  the  soil,  machinery  more  generally  employed  and  agrarian 
societies  organised." 1 

In  many  houses  such  a  thing  as  a  bed  is  unknown,  but  in 
houses  that  can  afford  it  the  articles  are  far  more  numerous 

1  Sertorio  do  Monte  Pereira.     A  producfdo  agricola  (in  Notas  sobre 
Portugal). 


30  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

(and  ugly)  than,  for  instance,  in  Spain,  and  in  the  kitchen  an 

infinite  variety  of  pots  and  pans  fills  up  the  room  to  the 

exclusion  of  cleanliness.   Many  families  subsist 

•ercrowding     Qn    bread>    ^^^    musselS)  sardines,  with 

Starvation.  occasional  rice  and  bacalhau,  meat  being 
unknown.  Their  state  has  not  changed  much 
since  the  sixteenth  century,  when  many  of  the  Portuguese 
are  represented  as  "  ne  vivant  quasi  d'autre  chose  que  de 
caracolles,  de  moulles  et  petits  poissons  " — a  people  "  non 
adonne  aux  superfluites."  *  With  overcrowding  in  unhealthy 
quarters  in  the  towns  and  gnawing  poverty  in  the  country 
it  is  not  surprising  that  the  mortality  is  high. 

The  evils  are  increased  by  the  total  lack  of  direction. 

Sometimes  at  the  very  gates  of  a  large  and  flourishing  property 

one  comes  across  a  village  of  tumbledown 

Absentee        hovels  like  so   manv   walls  of  loose  stones 
Landlords. 

built  irregularly  and  picturesquely  along  a 

"  street  "  of  stone  and  rock  which  becomes  a  torrent  in  winter  ; 
and  one  is  inclined  to  compare  them  with  the  neat,  comfortable 
cottages  in  villages  under  the  supervision  of  those  "  harassing  " 
English  squires.  Yet  in  each  case  it  needs  only  the  interest 
and  goodwill  of  one  person  to  alter  the  state  of  the  whole 
village  and  give  an  impetus  to  cleanliness  and  comfort  and 
education,  but  that  person  will  certainly  not  be  the  agent  of 
an  absentee  landlord. 

In  the  size  of  holdings  there  is  the  same  difference  between 
the  north  and  south  of  Portugal  as  between  Galicia  and 
Andalucia  in  Spain.  In  Minho  the  land  is  all 
dividing  walls  and  hedges  round  diminutive 
°  fields,  the  average  size  of  holdings  being  under 
an  acre,  and  many  of  them  mere  patches  the 
size  of  a  pocket  handkerchief.  In  1908  for  5,423,132  inhabit- 
ants the  number  of  holdings  was  given  as  11,430,740  !  "  And 
if  it  is  considered  that  this  division  is  increased  in,  and  almost 

1  Ambassade  en  Espagne  et  en  Portugal  (en    1552).     Par  Philippe 
de  Caverel,     Arras,  I860. 


Population  and  Employment  31 

confined  to  part  of  the  centre  and  to  the  north,  the  extent 
of  the  evil  will  be  clear.  I  know  of  many  proprietors 
who,  to  obtain  a  total  rent  of  fifteen  or  twenty  escudos,1 
have  over  a  hundred  properties  scattered  over  the  parish, 
the  rent  of  some  of  them  representing  fractions  of  a  halfpenny. 
...  In  many  parishes  of  the  north  there  are  olives,  chestnut- 
trees  and  oaks  in  the  property  of  one  person  but  belonging 
to  someone  else,  and  sometimes  these  trees  are  divided  between 
more  than  one  owner."2 

In  Alemtejo  the  average  size  of  a  property  is  forty  or  fifty 
times  greater  than  in  the  north,  properties  of  20,000  acres 
being  not  unknown.  Alemtejo,  under  the 
Romans  flourishing  with  corn,  has  large 
tracts  of  waste  land,  and  when  the  land  is 
cultivated  modern  machinery  is  rarely  in  use.  When  intro- 
duced by  the  owner  of  the  land  it  is  allowed  to  fall  out  of  use, 
if  possible,  by  the  workmen,  and  at  harvest  time  one  has  the 
picturesque  sight  of  an  interminable  row  of  labourers  at  work 
without  any  of  the  noise  and  bustle  of  machinery.  It  has 
been  suggested  that  some  of  the  emigrants  from  the  north 
of  the  country  should  be  encouraged  to  go  to  Alemtejo  instead 
of  Brazil,  and  that  the  cultivation  of  seven  or  eight  hundred 
more  acres  of  Alemtejo  as  corn-land  would  put  an  end  to  the 
importation  of  corn  which  now  drains  the  country  of  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  pounds  yearly,  and  seems  to  belie  the  un- 
doubted fact  that  Portugal  is  above  all  an  agricultural  country. 
There  are  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  scheme,  since  Alemtejo 
is  a  little  too  near  home  to  form  the  Eldorado  of  the  peasant 
of  Minho  and  Traz  os  Montes.  Moreover,  if  a  part  of  Alemtejo 
were  subdivided  into  small  holdings  for  peasant  colonists, 
whatever  advantages  were  given  to  them  the  probability  is 
that  the  holdings  would  gradually  accumulate  in  the  hands 
of  one  or  two  persons  and  form  a  few  more  Alemtejan  monies 

1  Milreis,  duro,  dollar,  or  roughly  4s.,  but  varying  from  3s.  to  4s., 
according  to  the  exchange. 

2  Manuel  Teles,  A  Contribute*)  Predial.     Porto,  1914. 


32  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

and  herdades.  At  least  this  was  the  result  of  a  similar 
experiment  in  Andalucia. 

There  is  also  the  difficulty  of  water,  Alemtejo  more  than 

the  rest  of  Portugal  standing  in  need  of  irrigation  (artesian 

wells),    although    irrigation    is    welcome    to 

Irrigation.       agriculture  throughout  the  country  in  view 

of  the  long  summer  droughts.     Given  water, 

vegetation  of  all  kinds  grows  and  prospers  with  marvellous 

rapidity  in  this  land  of  hot  sun  and  warm  air. 

A  requirement  that  goes  hand  in  hand  with  irrigation  is 

that  of  afforestation.     It  is  true  that  woods  cover  above 

22  per  cent,  of  the  total  area  of  Portugal, 

Afforestation,  which  is  double  the  average  in  Spain  and 
two-thirds  of  the  average  in  Europe.  The 
cultivated  area  was  given  as  5,068,454  hectares  in  1906,  the 
uncultivated  as  3,842,186.  Trees  were  calculated  to  occupy 
some  1,700,000  hectares,1  and  most  of  these  trees  are  of  a 
valuable  kind.  Those  of  widest  extension  are  pines  (about 
430,000  hectares2),  evergreen  oaks  (azinheiras :  416,000 
hectares),  cork-trees  (366,000 3),  and  olives  (329,000).  Chest- 
nuts cover  some  84,000  hectares,  and  oaks  47,000. 4  But, 
especially  in  Traz  os  Montes,  Alemtejo,  and  the  Serra  da 
Estrella,  there  is  plenty  of  scope  for  afforestation.  In  the 
latter,  which  compares  so  unfavourably  with  the  well-wooded 
Serra  do  Gerez,  something  has  been  done.  Near  Manteigas 
about  2,000  acres  have  been  afforested  (chiefly  with  pine  and 
oak).  In  1913  alone  some  four  hundred  bushels  of  acorns 
were  sown.  Altogether  since  the  law  of  1901,  which  placed 
the  woods  under  the  Department  of  Public  Works,  some 
12,000  acres  have  been  afforested5  by  the  State,  and  private 

1  The  hectare  =  two  and  a  half  acres. 

2  They  yield  resin,  are  used  for  building  throughout  Portugal,  and 
are  exported  for  various  purposes,  including  that  of  props  in  mines. 

3  A  cork-tree  is  stripped  once  in  ten  years,  yielding  about  £2. 

4  Notas  sobre  Portugal.     Lisbon,  1908. 

5  Chiefly  pine  and  oak,  but  also  including  ash,  elm,  poplar,  nut, 
eucalyptus,  acacia,  etc. 


A    FARMER 


Population  and  Employment  33 

individuals  are  said  to  afforest  almost  as  many  acres  annually, 
the  State  selling  30,000  kilos  (at  threepence  the  kilo) 1  of  pine 
seed  yearly.  The  State  itself  possesses  comparatively  little 
land,  and  the  town  councils  have  shown  no  inclination  to 
be  dispossessed  of  their  commons.  The  more  enlightened 
Portuguese  from  King  Diniz  onwards  have  always  been 
keenly  alive  to  the  advantages  of  afforestation,  but  the  more 
remote  town  councils  have  done  nothing  to  counteract  the 
destruction  of  trees  at  the  hands  of  the  peasants.2  At  the 
new  annual  "  Festival  of  the  Tree  "  trees  are  planted  through- 
out the  country  by  the  school-children.  The  yield  of  a  hectare 
of  the  famous  Leiria  pine  woods  is  estimated  at  four  milreis, 
and  the  expense  at  one  milreis,  giving  a  net  profit  of  about 
twelve  shillings.  This  would  be  increased  by  easier  and 
cheaper  means  of  transport. 

The  state  of  the  Portuguese  roads  has  recently  been  attract- 
ing much  attention,  and  during  the  last  sixty  years  has  been 
the    constant    care    of   Ministers    of    Public 
Roads.          Works.      (This    department  was  created  in 
1852.)     About   13,000  miles    of   roads  have 
been  projected  by   the   State,  only  about   a  half  of  which 
have   been    constructed3 — almost    all    in    the    second    half 
of   last   century.     The   worst   is,   however,  not   that    roads 
are  not  made,  but  that  there  is  apparently  no  money  to  keep 
them  in  repair.     Yet  an  average  of  over  a  thousand  contos 
has  been  spent  on  roads  annually  during  the  last  sixty  years. 
A  writer  recently  in  0  Seculo 4  remarks  that  Portugal  "  is 
imperfectly  equipped  with  roads  and,  moreover,  those  which 
exist  are  in  such  a  state,  in  most  districts,  that  they  can  scarcely 
be  used.     We  know  various  places  which  are  so  to  say  isolated 

1  Joaquim  Ferreira  Borges,  A  Silvicultura  em  Portugal  (in  Notas 
sobre  Portugal). 

1  Trees,  as  well  as  fish  and  game,  suffered  severely  from  the  decree 
of  King  Manoel  I,  throwing  open  the  private  coutadas. 

3  In    1907   the  roads  in  existence  are  given  as   11,754  kilometres 
(6,058  main,  5,180  secondary,  and  516  by-roads). 

4  15th  April,  1914. 

3— (2404) 


34  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

from  neighbouring  towns,  and  can  only  be  approached  easily 
by  railway.  The  state  of  the  roads  with  ruts  and  holes  in 
which  carts  sink  has  in  certain  parts  given  rise  to  a  curious 
\  industry,  that  of  rescuing  vehicles  which  have  stuck  fast. 
It  is  exercised  by  peasants  possessing  yokes  of  oxen,  who  at 
sunrise,  armed  with  hooks  and  ropes,  lead  them  to  the  worst 
places,  and  there  wait  patiently  for  a  motor-car  or  other 
vehicle  to  sink  in,  and  then  immediately  offer  their  assistance, 
in  return  for  a  few  shillings  or  pence,  according  to  the  quality 
of  the  vehicle  and  its  occupants."  Motor-cars,  which  are 
surprisingly  numerous  in  Portugal,  and  are  all  imported  from 
abroad,  deserve  a  better  fate  than  this,  considering  that  they 
pay  a  tax  of  £24  at  the  Customs. 

But,  on  the  whole,  the  roads  of  Portugal  compare  favourably 

with  those  of  Spain,  and  any  improvement  to  encourage 

tourists  must  be  carried  out  in  connection 

with  SPain> that  is>  wit*1  the  roads  between  the 
Portuguese  frontier  and  Irun.  Now,  both 
in  Portugal  and  Spain,  societies  are  established  to  watch 
over  the  interests  of  tourists.  The  Sociedade  de  Propaganda 
de  Portugal,  which  is  doing  good  work,  has  its  headquarters 
at  the  Largo  das  duos  Igrejas,  Lisbon,  and  is  most  prompt 
and  willing  in  answering  any  inquiries.  It  may  be  hoped 
that  improvement  will  be  rapid,  and  of  course  it  is  equally 
important  for  agriculture,  which  especially  requires  the 
construction  of  a  large  number  of  small  by-roads.  The 
construction  of  roads  in  both  countries  has  been  too  often 
intimately  connected  with  politics,  and  their  repair,  when 
entrusted  to  the  local  authorities,  has  been  a  disastrous  failure. 
Were  a  first-rate  road  to  prolong  to  the  Portuguese  frontier 
the  road  of  five  hundred  miles  from  Paris  to  the  Bidasoa, 
and  could  the  roads  in  Portugal  be  compared  with  those  of 
the  Basque  provinces  (both  in  France  and  in  Spain),  a  country 
so  beautiful  and  with  so  many  famous  buildings  would  be 
overrun  with  motor-cars  (so  that  quiet  people  would  flee  to 
the  mountains). 


Population  and  Employment  35 

The  railways  are  even  more  deficient.  When  those  in 
construction  have  been  completed  the  total  will  amount  to  a 

little  over  two  thousand  miles.     The  whole 
Railways.        of  the  south  of  Portugal  is  served  by  but  one 

line,  which  goes  from  Lisbon  (i.e.,  from 
Barreiro  across  the  Tagus)  to  Faro,  branching  off  midway  to 
Evora  and  Villa  Vic.osa  and  again  to  Moura.  The  journey  to 
Faro  requires  over  twelve  hours,  with  the  result  that  Algarve 
is  practically  cut  off  from  the  capital.  The  desert  of  Sahara 
is  scarcely  more  remote.  A  briefer  route  and  a  bridge  over 
the  Tagus  at  Lisbon  are  in  contemplation.  Hitherto  facilities 
given  to  travel  have  chiefly  taken  into  consideration  persons 
leaving  Portugal  or  coming  so  far  as  Lisbon  and  Oporto  only, 
and  many  of  the  most  delightful  and  characteristic  parts  of 
the  country  are  left  unvisited. 

The  postal  service  between  Lisbon  and  foreign  countries 
is  good,  but  in  the  provinces  it  differs  little  from  the  service 
in  Spain,  where  the  receipt  of  a  letter  is  as  hazardous  as  the 
winning  of  a  prize  in  the  lottery.1 

Besides  tourists  and  agriculture,  improvement  in  the 
communications  would  encourage  the  development  of  the 

mining  industry.    At  present  the  number  of 
Mines.          miners   in   Portugal   is   small,   although   the 

subsoil  is  known  to  be  rich  in  minerals. 
Many  of  the  mines  that  are  worked  are  in  the  hands  of  foreign- 
ers, and  the  minerals  are  often  exported  in  the  condition  in 
which  they  leave  the  mine.  The  statistics  for  1912  show  an 
increase  in  the  production  of  coal  (70  contos),  iron  (21),  copper 
(254),  and  tin  (33).  The  mineral  obtained  in  largest  quanti- 
ties is  wolfram  ;  gold,  antimony,  uranium,  zinc,  and  other 
minerals  are  produced  on  a  very  small  scale.  The  total 
yearly  output  of  the  mines  in  Portugal  is  estimated  at  under 
£400,000. 

About    60,000  persons,    or   one  per   cent,    of   the    entire 

1  The  posts  and  telegraphs  in  Portugal  yield  the  State  a  steady 
yearly  surplus  of  several  hundred  contos. 


36  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

population,  are  engaged  in  fishing  or  in  selling  or 
preparing  fish.  Sardines  are  very  plentiful,  and  donkeys 
laden  with  them  are  driven  far  inland.  The 
Industries  number  of  Portuguese  who  go  to  the  north 
seas  to  fish  for  bacalhau  has  greatly  increased 
in  recent  years,  and  in  1911  amounted  to  1,400,  in  forty- 
five  boats  of  an  average  size  of  280  tons,  whereas  in  1902 
there  were  but  fifteen  boats  with  an  average  size  of  180  tons. 
The  number  of  workmen  employed  in  the  cutting  and 
preparation  of  cork  may  be  5,000,  but,  even  if  these  be  included, 
the  total  industrial  population  of  Portugal 
wil1  scarcely  exceed  three  per  cent,  of  the 
whole  population.  The  largest  number  are 
employed  in  cotton  and  woollen  factories  of  the  north  (Covilha 
Guimaraes,  Portalegre,  etc.),  the  former  with  some  30,000, 
the  latter  with  some  10,000  workmen.  A  far  smaller  number 
are  engaged  in  factories  of  paper,  glass,  glazed  tiles  (azulejos), 
silk,  etc. *  Portuguese  industries,  although  they  are  bolstered 
up  by  an  excessive  protection,  are  not  congenial  to  the  climate 
or  the  character  of  the  people,  and  but  for  protection  many 
of  them  could  not  exist  for  a  month,  while  under  protection 
they  tend  to  vegetate  and  to  raise  the  prices  rather  than  the 
quality  of  their  products.  It  is  sometimes  complained  that 
the  Methuen  treaty  killed  Portuguese  cottons  and  woollens, 
but  as  a  matter  of  fact  an  even  more  exaggerated  protection 
could  not  enable  them  to  compete  with  foreign  goods.  They 
are  exported  chiefly  to  the  Portuguese  colonies  ;  the  woollen 
goods  supplied  in  Portugal  are  mostly  of  a  very  rough  sort, 
such  as  peasants'  caps  and  cloaks,  excellent  of  their  kind. 
The  Portuguese  have  always  shown  a  preference  for  English 
stuffs.2  In  the  same  way  the  paper  produced  is  of  the 

1  Seejoaquim  de  Vasconcellos,  A  Ceramica  portuguesa.     Porto,  1894. 
In  1905  the  export  of  azulejos  was  53  tons  (of  which  37  went  to  Brazil). 

2  In  an  old  chronicle  a  British  force  having  landed  to  help  a  Portu- 
guese army  in  the  siege  of  a  town,  one  of  the  besiegers,  to  inform  the 
besieged  of  the  fact,  asks  sarcastically  if  they  are  in  need  of  cloth  from 
England. 


Population  and  Employment  37 

commonest  ;  perhaps  the  only  manufacture  in  which  they 
excel  is  that  of  the  glazed  tiles,  with  which  so  many  houses 
are  lined  within  and  without. 

The  main  business  of  the  Portuguese  is  not  industry,  not 
even  politics,  but  agriculture,  *  the  number  of  persons  engaged 
in  agriculture  being  calculated  at  about  three- 
Agriculture,      fifths  of  the  whole  population.     Agriculture 
often,  too  often,  means  vineyards.     The  soil 
and  sun  of  Portugal  combine  to  make  it  a  land  of  the  grape  ; 
and  along  the  sea  vines  can  grow  where  other  crops  cannot, 
dying  down  to  escape  the  winter  storms,  then  receiving  the 
spring  rains  till  the  grapes  begin  to  swell  and  sweeten  in  the 
summer  months  of  drought. 

Nearly  every  other  village  seems  to  be  celebrated  for  its 
wines — common  wines  prepared  without  care,  and  selling  for 
twopence  or  threepence  the  litre  bottle.  The 
Wines.  yearly  average  of  production  is  about  a  hun- 
dred litres  to  every  inhabitant  in  Portugal. 
The  wines  chiefly  exported  are  of  course  port  wine  and 
Madeira.2  The  wines  of  Collares,  Bucellas,  and  Carcavellos 
have  a  great  reputation  in  Portugal,  as  also  those  of  Ribatejo, 
the  Moscatel  of  Setubal,  and  the  light  vinhos  verdes  of  Minho 
(Amarante,  Basto,  Monsao).  The  famous  treaty  of  Methuen 
in  1703,  which  stipulated  that  Portuguese  wines  should  be 
exported  to  England  at  a  reduced  tariff  (see  pages  126  and  225) 
has  been  blamed  by  some  Portuguese  for  the  fall  of  the  price 
of  wines  in  Portugal.  That  is,  they  blame  England  because 
the  Portuguese  after  the  treaty,  in  their  eagerness  to  benefit 
by  it,  devoted  themselves  to  vine-growing  to  the  exclusion  of 
other  branches  of  agriculture.  The  Portuguese  vine-growers 
have  had  to  contend  against  this  over-production,  against 

1  Commerce  is  not  more  flourishing  than  industry.     The  percentage 
of  merchant  ships  entering  the  Tagus  has  recently  (i.e.,  just  before  the 
war)  been  given  as  follows  :   34  German,  33  British,  9  French,  9  Dutch, 
7  Portuguese,  and  8  of  other  nations. 

2  Some  English  wine  companies  at  Oporto  date  from  the  seventeenth 
century. 


38  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

the  ravages  of  phylloxera,  which  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago 
destroyed  nearly  two  hundred  thousand  acres  (since  for  the 
most  part  replanted),  against  foreign  falsifications,  against 
the  competition  of  France,  Italy,  and  Spain. l  Recently  the 
export  of  common  red  wines  of  Portugal  to  Brazil  has  greatly 
increased,  Brazil  being  now  the  country  to  which,  after  Eng- 
land, Portugal  exports  most  wine — as  also  the  export  of  gener- 
ous wines  to  Germany  since  the  German-Portuguese  commer- 
cial treaty  of  1908.  Against  these  advantages  must  be  set 
the  closure  of  French  markets  and  the  decreasing  popularity 
of  port  wine  in  England.  The  districts  of  Portugal  which 
produce  most  wine  are  those  of  Lisbon  (about  160,000  acres  of 
vineyards),  Braga  (about  75,000  acres),  Vizeu  (about  72,000 
acres),  Santarem  (about  65,000),  Oporto  (about  62,000). 

The  total  cultivated  area  in  Portugal  exceeds  twelve  million 
acres,  and  of  this  area  olives  occupy  about  a  fifteenth,  or 
329,000  hectares  (in  1906),  vines  313,000  hec- 
tares,  and  fruit  trees  (chiefly  the  fig,  almond 
and  carob,  which  need  little  rain  and  flourish 
in  Algarve)  about  630,000  acres.  Olives  are  grown  principally 
in  the  districts  of  Santarem  (75,000  hectares),  Leiria  (35,000), 
Castello  Branco  (33,000),  Beja,  Braganca,  and  Coimbra  (some 
25,000  hectares  each),  and  Faro  (20,000).  The  annual  export 
of  olive  oil  is  considerable,  but  it  cannot  compare  for  excellence 
with  the  oil  of  Italy  :  it  is  in  fact  from  Italy  that  oil  comes 
for  the  tinning  of  fish  in  Portugal. 

But  the  most  remarkable  imports  into  Portugal  are  those 

of  wheat,  maize  and  rice,  in  which,  as  in  garden  produce  and 

cattle,  Portugal  should  be  able  to  become 

Strange         almost,  if  not  quite,  self-supporting.     While 

Imports.        whole  regions  remain  untilled  and  emigrants 

are    counted    by    the    thousand    monthly, 

immense  sums  are  spent  every  year  in  importing  wheat  and 

maize  :  in  1913  the  Treasury  received  about  £600,000  merely 

1  An  acre  of  vines  may  cost  about  £35  to  plant,  and  will  not  really 
repay  the  planter  till  after  its  sixth  year. 


Population  and  Employment  39 

from  the  duty  on  these  imports.  Maize  is  grown  chiefly  in 
the  north,  where  in  summer  it  gives  a  cool  peaceful  look  to  the 
province  of  Minho,  wheat  in  Alemtejo,  and  rye  in  Traz  os 
Montes.  Official  statistics  for  1911  give  the  number  of 
hectares  sown  with  corn  as  follows  in  the  various  districts  : 
Beja  117,324  (11-44  per  cent,  of  the  entire  area  of  the  district), 
Castello  Branco  68,299  (10-21  per  cent.),  Evora  65,290  (8- 82), 
Lisbon  54,810  (6-90),  Portalegre  47,608  (7- 64),  Santarem 
29,252  (4-41),  Faro  19,648  (3-91),  Bragan$a  18,563  (2-85), 
Guarda  8,996  (1-64),  Coimbra  5,754  (1-47),  Vizeu  2,776  (-55), 
Villa  Real  2,691  (-60),  Porto  2,064  (-89),  Braga  1.492  (-55), 
Aveiro  1,004  (-56),  Vianna  996  (-44).  Alemtejo,  besides  corn, 
provides  wide  pasture  lands,  and  live  stock  forms  one  of 
Portugal's  principal  exports  (chiefly  to  England  and  Spain), 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  large  quantities  of  meat  are  imported 
from  South  America.  Mules  and  pigs  are  most  numerous  in 
the  province  of  Alemtejo,  horses  and  donkeys  in  Estremadura, 
sheep  and  goats  in  Traz  os  Montes,  and  oxen  in  Minho. 

Portugal's  chief  exports,  besides  wine  and  cork,  are  cattle, 
fish,  fruits,  minerals,  wood,  olive  oil.  There  is  no  reason 

why  all  of  these,  with  the  exception  perhaps 
Imports"        °*  w^116'  should  not  show  a  gradual  increase 

as  fresh  markets  are  obtained,  and  better 
methods  (especially  in  the  preparation  of  olive  oil)  and  quicker 
communications,  which  will  enable  Portuguese  fruits  and 
flowers  to  be  exported  in  ever-growing  quantities.1  The 
principal  imports,  apart  from  machinery  and  articles  of  luxury, 
are  wheat,  maize,  sugar,  cod,  rice.  A  large  number  of  Dutch 
cheeses  is  imported  every  year,  although  the  curious  little 
soft  white  cheeses,  about  the  size  of  half  a  crown,  are  very 
common  in  Portugal,  and  are  a  favourite  food  of  the  peasants. 
Indolence,  ignorance,  mistaken  finance  and  lack  of  capital 

1  The  cork  is  exported  partly  in  a  raw  state,  owing  to  the  higher 
Customs  duty  on  manufactured  cork  in  Germany  and  some  other 
countries.  In  Alemtejo  it  is  so  common  that  it  is  used  to  make  articles 
of  the  most  various  kinds,  taking  the  place  of  wood  or  tin. 


40  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

have  hitherto  fettered  agriculture  in  Portugal,  neglect  on  the 
part  of  the  State  and  of  private  landowners  going  hand  in 
hand  with  illiteracy  and  distrust  on  the  part  of  the  peasants. 
But  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  Portuguese  agriculture  has 
a  prosperous  future  and  that  the  miserable  lot  of  the  peasant 
will  be  improved.  Portugal  should  be  able  to  become  a  land 
of  enlightened  and  cultured  farmers,  such  as  are  sometimes 
found  in  the  north  of  Europe  (for  instance,  in  Denmark), 
as  it  were  a  land  of  little  Herculanos,  combining  farming  with 
scholarship. 


CHAPTER  III 

LIFE  IN   TOWN   AND   COUNTRY 

FOR  many,  too  many,  Portuguese,  Lisbon  is  Portugal.  They 
will  put  up  with  much  misery  in  the  provinces  so  long  as 
Lisbon  has  fine  shops  and  streets  and  squares. 
"  Chiado  ' '  ^e  am^^ion  of  the  peasant  is  to  see  Lisbon, 
and  many  prefer  to  live,  however  wretchedly, 
as  citizens  of  that  great  city  than  quietly  at  their  ease  in  the 
country.  The  rich  inhabitants  inhabit  Paris,  or  else,  as  in 
the  days  of  Garrett,  "  spend  their  lives  between  the  Chiado  and 
the  Rua  do  Oiro,"  although  the  motor-car  now  lures  many 
from  the  clubs  of  the  Rua  Garrett  and  the  cafes  of  the  Rocio  at 
least  as  far  afield  as  Cintra  or  the  Estoris.  Rua  Garrett  is 
now  the  official  name  (after  the  poet  Almeida-Garrett,  1799- 
1854),  but  it  remains  the  Chiado  in  common  speech.  Its  name 
derived  probably  from  the  name,  or  rather  from  the  nickname, 
of  another  poet,  Antonio  Ribeiro,  o  Chiado.  He  was  a  popular 
sixteenth-century  Lisbon  poet,  and  lived  in  a  house  just  off 
this  street :  it  is  thought  that  the  frequent  phrase  "  Vamos  ao 
Chiado  "  ("  Let  us  go  and  see  Chiado  ")  led  to  the  name  being 
given  to  the  street,  hitherto  called  Rua  direita  das  Portas  de 
Santa  Catharina.  The  quaint  lift  which  suspends  people  like 
the  mediaeval  Virgil  in  a  basket  over  the  city,  and,  like  some 
of  the  other  eight  ascensores,  gives  a  splendid  view,  still  has 
the  words  written  up  at  its  Largo  de  Sao  Julido  entrance  : 
"  Ao  CHIADO." 

Lisbon,  on  its  seven  hills,  has  so  few  level  spaces  that  people 
naturally  congregate,  as  water  runs  down  from  a  mountain- 
side, in  the  district  between  the  Rocio  and  the 
"  Baixa  ' '       river»    appropriately   called    the   Baixa,    the 
Low  Quarter,  and  meeting  between  acquaint- 
ances is  more  frequent  than  in  any  other  capital  city.     The 
splendid  Avenida  da  Liberdade  has  never  become  popular, 

41 


42  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

and  is  apt  to  be  deserted  except  on  special  occasions,  a  great 
review  or  some  Republican  anniversary.  It  seems  to  be  too 
far  from  the  centres  of  gossip  :  before  you  had  walked  from 
the  Praga  dos  Restauradores  (i.e.,  the  liberators  of  Portugal 
from  Spain  in  1640)  to  the  Prapa  do  Marquez  de  Pombal  and 
back  a  ministry  might  have  fallen.  Best  keep  on  the  safe 
side  and  miss  nothing  of  the  human  comedy  which  in  Lisbon 
has  centred  in  the  Rocio  throughout  the  centuries.  Here 
there  is  continual  movement  by  day  and  night.  Lisbon  sits 
up  late  and  is  an  extremely  late  riser.  Three  o'clock  on  a 
June  morning  sees  the  last  revellers  in  the  streets,  and,  later, 
at  an  hour  when  other  cities  have  put  on  their  best  clothes, 
dust -bins  still  line  the  pavements,  and  the  rag-pickers  are  at 
their  work. 

Lisbon's  streets,  spick  and  span,  at  least  all  those  that  the 
passing  tourist  will  see,  give  no  idea  of  the  accounts  of  all 
writers  a  century  ago,  who  in  prose  and  verse 
agreed  about  the  dirt  and  nastiness  of  the 
town.  Indeed,  so  late  as  1835  the  suggestions 
of  a  Portuguese  writer  for  the  improvement  of  the  city  give 
some  idea  of  its  condition.  It  will  be  forbidden,  said  he, 
to  break  in  horses  in  the  streets.  It  will  be  forbidden  to  kill 
or  singe  pigs  in  the  streets,  or  keep  them  alive  in  the  streets, 
or  tied  to  the  doors,  "  for  all  these  things  annoy  the  inhabit- 
ants." Dead  animals  were  not  to  be  left  lying  in  the  streets. 
He  noted,  too,  the  number  of  stray  dogs,  the  beggars  at  every 
step,  the  filthiness  of  the  outer  staircases  of  the  houses.1 
Some  of  the  staircases  had  deep  wells  beneath  them — there 
was  one  at  No.  17  rua  da  Prata,  19  palmos  deep. 2  The  great 
houses  had  several,  as  also  the  convents ;  indeed,  there  is  a 
doleful  history  of  how  the  Prioress  fell  into  one  of  these  on  a 
moonless  night ;  however,  she  was  fished  out  next  morning, 
and  it  was  regarded  as  a  miracle  that  her  clothes  were  perfectly 

1  Joaquim  Jose  Ventura  da  Silva  :  Descnpfilo  topografica  da  nobi- 
lissima  cidade  de  Lisboa.  Lisboa,  1835. 

1  Memoria  sobre  Chafarizes,  Bicas,  Fontes  e  Pofos  pitblicos.  Lisboa, 
1851. 


Life  in  Town  and  Country  43 

dry,  not  even  the  sabots  which  she  was  wearing  showing  any 
sign  of  water. 

But  the  wisest  inhabitants  of  Lisbon  sent  and  send  their 

servants  and  negro  slaves  to  the  public  fountains  or  buy  the 

water  brought  thence  by  the  aguadeiros  who 

,   may  be  seen  barrel  on  shoulder  in  all  the 

Aguadeiros.  •* 

narrow  streets  of  the  high-lying  districts. 
The  water  of  many  of  these  fountains  is  reputed  to  have 
special  virtues,  as  formerly  the  "  fountain  of  the  horses  of 
New  Street,"  taken  before  sunrise,  miraculously  healed  diseases 
of  the  eyes,  and  the  same  water  "  has  the  secret  property  of 
speedily  fattening  the  horses  that  drink  of  it,  and  it  would 
do  the  same  to  men  if  they  went  to  drink  of  it  at  the  fountain." 
Carrying  heavy  bilhas  of  water  up  Lisbon's  steep  and  narrow 
streets  is  so  arduous  a  business  that  the  poorest  inhabitants 
prefer  to  pay  a  tiny  sum  to  the  aguadeiro,  and  in  a  country 
where  wine  is  often  almost  as  common  as  water  the  qualities 
of  the  various  waters  are  discussed  with  perhaps  greater 
keenness  than  those  of  wines.  In  the  sixteenth  century  the 
number  of  water-sellers  is  given  as  twenty-six. 

Many  houses,  chiefly  in  the  newer  parts  of  the  city,  are 
entirely  covered  outside  with  azulejos,  mostly  green  or  blue, 

which  give  them  a  cool  and  cleanly  appear- 

Lisbon          ance.     The  rooms  inside,  too,  often  have  a 
Streets  and  .  .  '       . '       ,  .  , 

Houses.         pattern  of  azulejos  several  feet  high  round 

the  walls,  and  their  use  should  be  more 
common  in  all  hot  countries.  The  low-lying  part  of  Lisbon 
between  the  Rocio  (sometimes  called  Rolling  Motion  Square 
or  Turkey  Square)  and  the  Terreiro  do  Pa$o  or  Praga  do 
Commercio  (Black  Horse  Square)  was  rebuilt  in  parallel 
straight  streets  after  the  earthquake  of  1755.  These  streets 
seem  narrow  enough  now,  and  the  united  breadth  of  them 
would  fit  into  the  Avenida  da  Liberdade,  but  for  the  days  of 
the  Marquez  de  Pombal  their  plan  had  a  certain  grandeur. 
They  still  keep  in  some  measure  their  distinctive  characters, 
the  Rua  da  Praia  abounding  in  the  shops  of  silversmiths,  the 


44  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

Rua  Augusta  in  tailors  and  linendrapers.  From  the  Rocio, 
besides  these  links  with  Black  Horse  Square,  goes  the  steep 
Rua  do  Carmo,  with  more  fashionable  shops,  leading  to  the 
Chiado,  and  on  the  opposite  side  is  the  great  market-place 
of  the  Prapa  da  Figueira. 

Thither  through  the  night  carts  drawn  by  single  oxen  rumble 
slowly  in,  laden  with  vegetables  from  the  country,  the  white 

hanging  street-lamps  lighting  up  the  lordly 
Market          pyramids  of  cabbages  or  turnips  or  tomatoes 

while  regateiras  (market  women,  also  called 
collarejas,  from  Collares)  carry  in  great  baskets  on  their 
heads,  and  may  be  seen  resting  at  dawn  on  the  pavement 
outside  the  market.  Indeed,  it  is  one  of  the  charms  of 
Lisbon  that  beneath  all  its  cosmopolitanism  it  has  succeeded 
in  retaining  a  certain  rustic  air.  The  servant-girl  in  one  of 
M.  Anatole  France's  books,  who  came  back  well  pleased  with 
her  first  day  in  Paris  :  elle  avail  vu  de  beaux  navels,  would  be 
enchanted  with  Lisbon.  There  the  flat  open  baskets  of 
vegetables  balanced  by  men  on  their  shoulders  at  either  end 
of  a  thick  pole — a  truly  tremendous  burden,  but  perhaps 
they  are  gallegos,  the  porters  of  Lisbon,  who  stand  cord 
over  shoulder  at  the  street  corners — and  the  brimming 
panniers  of  donkeys  give  a  freshness  to  the  streets. 

Morning  and  evening  the  milkman  drives  his  cows  through 
the  streets  with  the  most  melodious  and  delightful  of  chants. 

Or  the  seller  of  maize  bread  cries  his  broinhas 
Pregoes.         de    milho    quenlinhas.     In    May    come    the 

strawberries  :  morangos  de  Cinlra,  followed 
through  the  summer  months  by  a  legion  of  melon-sellers, 
criers  of  grapes  and  all  manner  of  fruit  as  the  heat  increases. 
Some  kind  of  fruit  is  ever  to  be  had  in  plenty  :  in  winter 
handcarts  of  oranges  and  pineapples  ;  or  a  man  carries  a 
rosary  of  great  pineapples  hanging  from  a  pole.  And  year  in, 
year  out,  go  the  varinas,  the  women  of  Ovar,  bare-footed,  with 
their  gold  ornaments  and  stiffly  falling  skirts,  crying  their 
fish ;  the  sellers  of  newspapers ;  and  the  lotteryman 


Life  in  Town  and  Country  45 

(cauteleiro)  with  his  perpetual  litany  of  figures  and  his  warning 
that  "  to-morrow  the  wheel  goes  round  :    Amanha  anda  a 
roda."     The  cries  are  nearly  always  soft  and  musical,  very 
different  from  the  piercing  street-cries  of  Madrid  or  Barcelona. 
There  comes  a  time,  about  the  end  of  July,  when  Lisbon 
is  like  Oxford  in  vacation.     The  glory  is  departed,  and  here 
there  is  no  secondary  reflected  splendour  of 
Lisbon          besundayed  scouts  to  take  its  place.     The 
mSeasonCa<       smart  carriages  and  motor-cars  are  few  and 
far  between,  the   steady   flow   of   the   well- 
dressed  and  fashionable  passing  up  and  down  the  Rua  do  Carmo, 
the  Chiado,  the  Rua  Nova  de  Almada,  the  Rua  de  S.  Nicolau, 
and  the  Rua  do  Oiro,  dries  up  like  the  summer  streams.     Then 
lemons  and  dark  red  bilhas  of  water  are  carried  about  the 
streets,  here  a  woman  bears  on  her  head  over  a  kerchief  of 
deepest  blue  flowing  to  her  waist  a  flat  basket  of  long  light 
green  water-melons,  or  a  great  mound  of  white  and  purple 
grapes.     Or  perhaps  in  the  sultry  evening  from  some  doorway 
sounds  the  sluggish  and  persistent  Quern  da  mais,  mais,  mais, 
of  the  auctioneer  at  a  long  drawn-out  leildo,  as  if  the  whole 
world  were  ending  in  a  slow  desolate  agony.     It  is  a  cry  so 
different  from,  yet  as  melancholy  as,  the  Ho  mirier  of  the 
itinerant  glazier  in  some  village  of  the  French  Alps  in  autumn 
before  the  first  heavy  snows  cut  off  its  communications  with 
the  plain. 

But  with  the  autumn  in  Lisbon  cheerfulness  returns.     From 

Bussaco  and  Cascaes  and  Cintra,  the  Estoris  and  Buarcos 

and  Caldas  da  Rainha,  from  Paris  and  foreign 

Chestnuts.       and    Portuguese   watering-places,    come   the 

sun-browned  veraneantes.     There  is  a  fresh 

vigour  in  the  streets,  the  first  autumn  violets  are  sold,  the 

chestnut-seller  with  his  smoking  baskets  chants  his  Castanhas 

quentes  e  boas.     Donkeys  are  driven  through  the  streets  with 

panniers  of  olives  fresh  from  the  country,  and  a  little  later 

droves  of  turkeys  stalk  through  the  Rocio  undeterred  from 

their  leisured  dignity  by  all  the  embarrassing  trams  and  taxis. 


46  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

The  inner  meaning  of  castanha  in  Portuguese  is  "  restoration  "  ; 
violets  were  the  emblems  of  Napoleon's  return  from  Elba  : 
so  that  everything  points  to  the  coming  of  King  Sebastian 
on  one  of  those  quiet  autumn  mornings  when  the  hot  sun 
does  not  pierce  till  midday  through  the  thick  mists  enveloping 
the  Tagus,  and  the  fishing  boats  pass  down-stream  silent  and 
invisible.  The  author  of  Costume  of  Portugal1  refers  to 
Lisbon's  chestnut-roasters  :  "  women  who  are  seen  at  the 
corner  of  almost  every  street  in  Lisbon.  While  the  chestnuts 
are  roasting  a  few  grains  of  salt  are  thrown  over  them,  which 
gives  them  a  down  similar  to  the  bloom  on  a  plumb  fresh 
gathered."  We  may  take  the  bloom  of  the  plumb  with 
a  grain  of  their  salt,  but  still  in  the  winter  months  women  are 
to  be  seen  sitting  in  nearly  every  doorway  of  the  humbler 
streets  fanning  their  glowing  earthenware  pots  of  shape  exactly 
the  same  as  that  used  in  illustration  of  the  letter  F  (Fogareiro) 
in  Joao  de  Barros'  alphabet  (1539). 

If  stress  is  here  laid  on  these  rustic  traits  as  one  of  Lisbon's 

great  attractions  to  the  foreigner,  it  must  not  of  course  be 

Modern         thought  that  it  is  not  endowed  with  all  the 

Lisbon.         luxuries  and  refinements  of  a  great  modern 

city.     There  they  all  are,  the  good  hotels, 

streets  neatly  paved  and  scrupulously  clean,  the  comfortable 

motor-cars  and  carriages,  the  tempting  shop-windows,  and 

a  good  service  of  electric  tramcars,  in  an  endless  rosary  of 

white  and  yellow.    The  service  of  motor-cars  can  scarcely 

be  called  good.    Most  of  the  cars  are  comfortable,  and  some 

of  the  drivers  efficient,  but  the  drivers  of  others  sprawl  lazily 

in  the  Rocio,  only  waking  up  to  charge  an  excessive  fare,  which 

frightens  away  most  people.     Even  if  they  have  a  taximeter, 

it  starts  at  a  shilling  (250  reis)  and  reaches  1,000  reis  with  a 

strange  rapidity.    And  if  they  have  inveigled  some  unwary 

person  into  becoming  their  fare  and  prey — they,  of  course, 

consider  all  foreigners  fair  prey — he  will  find  himself  being 

conveyed  at  breakneck  pace  in  a  totally  wrong  direction. 

1  By  the  Rev.  William  Bradford  (London,  1814). 


Life  in  Town  and  Country  47 

Indeed,  the  foreigner  driven  furiously  in  a  Lisbon  taxi  may 
think  that  the  lisboeta  sets  more  value  on  time  than  on  life, 
but  in  fact  their  attitude  to  time  is  rather  that  of  the  madrileno 
driver  who,  if  asked  to  drive  faster,  will  gradually  slow  down, 
stop,  get  down,  open  the  door,  take  off  his  hat,  and  ask  if  you 
wished  for  anything.  He  will  keep  his  politeness,  even  if  you 
miss  your  train.  All  the  sadder  is  it  that  in  Lisbon  the  inroad 
of  foreign  customs  tends  to  interfere  with  the  pleasant  dilatory 
habits  of  the  native.  Few  shops,  for  instance — one  or  two 
chemists  or  booksellers  at  the  most — have  a  little  circle  of 
chairs  for  their  clients  (freguezes)  to  pass  the  time  in  leisurely 
cavaco.  But  centuries  of  progress  have  failed  to  make 
Lisbon  uninteresting,  so  various  are  the  ingredients  of  its 
motley  population,  men  of  all  nations,  classes  and  religions. 
Saloios,  i.e.,  peasants  from  the  neighbourhood  of  Lisbon,  are 
noticeable  in  the  streets  for  their  short  "  Eton  jackets  "  and 
close-fitting  trousers  spreading  out  over  the  foot,  and  peasants 
from  further  afield,  beyond  the  Tagus  for  their  immensely 
wide  (desabado)  hats  and  their  sackcloth  coloured  cloaks 
reaching  in  a  succession  of  capes  to  the  feet.  And  emigrants 
with  their  many-coloured  patchwork  alforges  and  their 
coffin-shaped  trunks  haunt  the  quays. 

Along  the  Tagus  are  more  markets  of  fruits  and  vegetables 
and  fish,  and  vessels  of  every  description,  from  the  fishing-boat 

to  the  great  Atlantic  liner,  are  continually 
°       loading  and  unloading.     Above  and  between 

the  masts  of  the  boats  show  the  many- 
coloured  dresses  of  fishwives  and  peasants,  while  a  multitude 
of  snow-white  sea-gulls  rise  and  fall,  rise  and  fall  against  the 
turquoise  blue  of  the  river.  Beyond  lies  Barreiro,  with  its 
cork  factories,  the  banks  of  the  Tagus  rise  abruptly,  and  on 
a  clear  day  lordly  Palmella  (from  which  the  palmelldo  wind 
blows  across  the  Tagus),  perched  on  its  lofty  crag,  gleams  from 
the  dark  serra.  The  passing  traveller  has,  even  without 
landing,  a  magnificent  view  of  city  and  harbour.  But  Lisbon 
has  many  more  intimate  beauties  which  demand  a  longer 


48  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

study,  and  would  provide  an  artist  with  work  for  months 
and  years.  Especially  in  winter  the  colouring  is  often  very 
exquisite,  with  tints  subdued  and  delicate,  as,  for  instance, 
on  a  stormy  day  the  grey  irregular  roofs  with  their  crops  of 
fresh  green  grass  seen  in  some  steep  travessa  against  the  dark 
indigo  of  the  river  or  hills  beyond  ;  or  some  glimpse  of  ruined 
Carmo  or  crumbling  Alfama  set  in  relief  by  a  sky  of  limitless 
clear  blue.  The  old  tiled  roofs,  warped  and  curving,  are  a 
perpetual  delight.  Sometimes  they  have  grass  in  straight 
furrows  between  the  rows  of  tiles  like  springing  corn,  or  they 
are  covered  by  a  more  continuous  carpet  of  mosses,  or  even 
are  gay  with  the  flower  of  hawksweed.  It  depends  largely 
on  the  rain.  Two  or  three  months  of  continuous  rain  in  winter 
brings  them  to  a  high  perfection.  Summer  is  the  great  weeder 
in  Portugal :  it  robs  both  roofs  and  cobbled  squares  of  their 
pleasant  green.  Alfama  from  a  distance  has  the  look  of  a 
tumble-down  fishing-village  above  the  Tagus.  At  close 
quarters  it  is  found  to  be  an  intricate  maze  of  streets  so  narrow 
that  they  never  let  in  the  sun,  and  a  man's  stretched-out  arms 
touch  either  wall,  and  so  steep  that  they  are  built  often  in  the 
form  of  stairs.  Equally  picturesque  is  the  district  of  Santa 
Catharina,  on  the  other  side  of  the  city.  The  marvellously 
steep  streets  and  stairways  going  down  from  the  Calfada  do 
Combro  to  the  river  are  full  of  quaint  surprises  worthy  of  the 
wynds  of  Edinburgh.  Narrow  stone  staircases  lead  round 
and  down  and  down,  apparently  nowhither,  small  yards  and 
terraces  struggle  manfully  to  keep  their  balance  as  level 
spaces,  here  and  there  a  palm  or  a  vine  or  an  orange-tree  gives 
a  touch  of  green.  The  principal  descending  streets  are  several 
yards  in  width.  Rows  of  bright-coloured  clothes  perpetually 
a-drying  are  projected  on  poles  from  either  side,  and  beneath 
these  motley  banners  is  a  succession  of  tiny  stifling  black  shops. 
The  steps  are  strewn  with  rubbish  and  with  cats  and  children 
innumerable.  Sometimes  from  a  doorway  comes  a  smell  of 
burnt  rosemary  or  other  scented  brushwood  used  to  light  the 
kitchen  fire,  and  bringing  with  it  saudade  of  the  life  in 


Life  in  Town  and  Country  49 

Portuguese  villages.  The  names  of  the  streets  are  often  as 
quaint  as  the  streets  themselves,  or  were,  for  they  disappear  and 
change  with  a  dreadful  frequency.  One  may  tremble  for  the 
Travessa  da  Larangeira  (of  the  Orange  Tree)  or  for  the  Travessa 
dos  Fieis  de  Deus  (of  the  Faithful  of  God).  How  soon  will 
these  be  called  the  Passage  of  Progress  and  the  Street  of 
Civilisation  ?  But  perhaps  those  in  authority  are  beginning 
to  realise  that  these  changes  often  rob  the  city  of  what  is  more 
precious  than  much  fine  gold  and  can  never  be  replaced. 

One  need  not  go  many  leagues  from  Lisbon  to  find  a  look 
of  immemorial  age  about  the  life  of  the  peasantry.     One 

might  be  in  pre-Roman  times.     The  peasant 
Vi!ifege         *n  k^-ck  Peaked  woollen  cap,  black  shirt  or 

blouse  and  knee-breeches  and  woollen  leggings, 
walks  slowly,  goad  in  hand,  in  front  of  his  ox-cart  with  its 
spokeless  wheels  of  solid  wood,  or  is  jolted  along  as  he  stands 
against  the  tall  crooked  stakes  that  form  the  sides  of  the  cart. 
The  life  is  often  very  primitive.  The  village  will  have  some 
kind  of  a  dark  taverna,  where  men  may  drink  and  play  cards, 
and  the  shop  of  the  grocer  who  is  the  little  god  and  gombeen 
man  of  the  village.  His  shop  sells  everything  from  hats  and 
shoes  and  brooms  to  cheeses  and  candles  and  wine  and  bread 
and  melons  and  grapes.  He  gives  himself  no  airs  and  is  always 
ready  to  serve  his  customers  behind  the  counter,  but  he  is  a 
power  in  the  land,  often  makes  a  considerable  sum  of  money, 
and  becomes  an  usurer,  or  even  helps  to  turn  the  scale  at  an 
election. 

The  village  will  also,  though  it  may  not  have  a  church, 
almost  certainly  have  a  prison,  through  the  bars  of  which  the 

prisoners  converse  with  their  friends  or  with 
Prisons.         any  passer-by,  as  is,  indeed,  the  case  in  the 

famous  Limoeiro  prison  in  Lisbon.  The 
Portuguese  are  unfortunately  notorious  for  their  neglect  of 
the  prisons  and  for  the  astonishing  way  in  which  children  and 
hardened  criminals,  political  and  common  offenders,  are 
herded  together.  And  the  eagerness  to  arrest  is  only  equalled 


50  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

by  the  reluctance  to  provide  food  for  the  arrested.  In  fact, 
to  give  a  meal  to  prisoners  is  a  recognised  form  of  private 
charity,  and  stands  between  them  and  actual  starvation. 

The  villages  themselves,  their  streets  and  houses,  are  often 
miserable  enough,  but  they  are  enlivened  by  a  large  number 

of  festas  through  the  year.     The  pilgrimage 
"Festas."       or  romaria  is  usually  to  some  shrine  in  the 

hills  or  by  the  sea,  and  combines  the  character 
of  a  profane  picnic  with  a  religious  motive.  The  most  famous 
shrine  is  that  of  the  Bom  Jesus,  near  Braga,  but  every  village 
has  its  small  church  or  hermitage  to  which  a  yearly  procession 
is  organised.  In  some  parts  of  the  country  the  year  begins 
with  the  janeiras,  when  groups  of  men  go  from  house  to  house 
with  songs  special  to  the  occasion,  after  the  fashion  of  the 
waits  in  England.  This  may  be  on  New  Year's  Day  or  five 
days  later  on  the  Day  of  Kings.  It  ends,  of  course,  with  the 
festivities  of  Christmas,  which  in  Portugal,  where  the  ties  of 
family  life  are  strong,  is  observed  with  a  peculiar  devotion, 
and  all  the  rites  of  the  yule  log  and  other  ancient  customs,  as 
the  consoada  or  odd  meal  to  pass  the  time  while  waiting  for 
the  midnight  mass,  called  a  missa  do  gatto.  In  the  towns  at 
Christmas  and  at  Easter  the  postman,  the  porter,  the  news- 
paper-seller, the  tradesman  will  send  you  their  visiting-cards  (!) 
with  their  name  and,  printed  beneath  it  the  words,  "  Deseja 
boas  festas  a  V.  Exa.  e  sua  Exma.  familia  "  ("  Wishes  a  happy 
fete  to  Your  Excellency  and  to  your  most  excellent  family  "). 
In  return  for  this  you  are  expected  at  Christmas  to  dar  as 
broas  (lit.,  give  maize-breads — the  broas  eaten  at  Christmas  in 
the  towns  are  yellow  cakes,  in  which  honey,  egg,  almond,  and 
orange  peel  predominate,  and  are  very  different  from  the 
excellent  maize  bread  of  Minho),  and  at  Easter  dar  as  amendoas 
(almonds).  Between  the  Day  of  Kings  and  Christmas  comes 
a  long  series  of  feast-days  and  pleasant  customs,  such  as  in 
autumn  (on  All  Saints'  Day)  the  magusto,  that  is,  a  kind  of 
picnic  in  which  the  principal  feature  is  the  roasting  and  eating 
of  chestnuts  not  unaccompanied  by  wine. 


Life  in  Town  and  Country  51 

But,  above  all,  June  is  the  month  of  rustic  merriment, 
with  the  fetes  of  St.  Antony,  St.  John  the  Baptist,  and  St. 
Peter.  Happily  no  attempts  to  dislodge  these 
samts  from  their  pre-eminence  in  the  mind 
of  the  people  have  hitherto  succeeded.  The 
eve  of  St.  John  continues  to  be  celebrated  with  festivities  far 
more  joyous  and  interesting  than  the  bourgeois  fete  of  Carnival, 
in  which  the  real  people  takes  little  part.  (At  Lisbon  the 
Carnival  lasts  not  one  day  but  many,  and  is  marked  by  a  good 
deal  of  vulgarity  and  absence  of  originality.  Indeed,  it  would 
be  utterly  tedious  but  for  the  striking  miniature  peasant 
costumes  in  which  it  is  the  custom  to  dress  up  small  children.) 
St.  John  the  Baptist  is  the  true  popular  patron  saint  of  Portu- 
gal, and  around  St.  John's  Eve  the  popular  fancy  has  woven 
a  rich  fairy  web  of  legend  and  superstition.  In  all  the  world, 
says  a  cantiga,  this  day  is  celebrated — 

Sao  Joao  nao  ha  no  mundo 
Quern  nao  queira  festejar  : 
Este  dia  e  mui  sob'rano, 
Esta  noite  e  singular. 

The  very  Moors  observe  it  in  Moordom — 

Atq  os  Mouros  da  Mourama 
Festejao  o  Sao  Joao. 

He  is  set  above  all  the  other  saints  :    there  is  none  like 
him,  none — 

Sao  Joao  e  festejado 
Por  todo  o  mundo  em  geral, 
Entre  todos  os   mais  santos 
Nao  ha  quern  Ihe  seja  igual. 

Sao  Pedro  e  homem  honrado, 
Companheiro  do  Senhor, 
Mas  para's  noites  divertidas 
Sao  Joao  tern  mais  valor. 

(St.  Peter  is  an  honest  man, 
Companion  of  Our  Lord, 
But  for  a  night  of  sheer  delight 
St.  John  must  be  preferred.) 


52  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

On  the  hills  and  at  cross-roads  and  in  the  villages  the  fires 
of  St.  John  glow  late  into  the  night.  The  saint  himself  comes 
to  light  them.  He  comes  from  the  flowered  mattos  and 
charnecas,  bringing  with  him  a  scent  of  rosemary — 

Donde  vindes,  6  Baptista, 
Que  cheirais  a  alecrim  ? 

(Rosemary  is  spoken  of  as  the  king  of  herbs — 

O  alecrim,  rei  das  hervas 
or, 

Das  flores  que  ha  no  monte 
O  rosmaninho  e  rei ; ) 

or  he  descends  straight  from  heaven,  where  he  has  been 
engaged  in  leaping  over  the  fires  lit  in  his  honour  in  the  sky. 

Donde  vindes,  6  Baptista, 

Pela  calma  sem  chapeo  ? 

— Vim  de  pular  as  fogueiras 

Que  me  fazem  Id  no  ceo. 
(Whence  come  you,  St.  John  the  Baptist, 
Hatless  in  the  heat  of  the  day  ? 
— From  leaping  over  my  fires  in  the  sky 
Am  I  come  away.) 

Or  he  even  comes  all  drenched  from  watering  beds  of 
onions — 

Donde  vindes,  Sao  Joao, 
Que  vindes  tao  molhadinho  ? 
— Venho  d'entre  aquellas  hortas 
De  regar  o  cebolinho. 

He  is  a  rogue,  a  picaro,  up  to  all  kinds  of  fun  in  the  popular 
fancy,  which  treats  him  with  the  utmost  familiarity.  He 
stands  as  godfather,  he  eats  the  grapes  in  the 
"*  vineyards,  he  courts  the  girls  as  they  go  to 
fill  their  pitchers  at  the  fountain,  and  they 
in  turn  crown  him  with  flowers — 

O  meu  rico  Sao  Joao 

Quern  vos  metteu  entre  as  flores  ? 

— Foram  as  donzellinhas 

Que  nao  tfim  outros  amores. 


Life  in  Town  and  Country  53 

He  is  expected  to  win  the  hearts  of  the  village  maidens  for 
his  votaries,  and  smooth  the  course  of  true  love,  and  if  he  fails 
in  these  duties  he  is  treated  with  scant  respect  and  even  well 
beaten — 

Em  as  mo9as  nao  me  querendo 

Dou  pancadas  no  santinho. 

He  is  expected  himself  to  help  in  building  up  the  fire — 

Para  fazer  as  fogueiras 
Na  noite  de  sua  festa, 
Sao  Joao  traz  la  do  monte 
Um  bragado  de  giesta. 

(With  a  handful  of  broom 

For  his  festal  night, 

St.  John  now  is  come 

His  fires  to  light.) 

He  even  jumps  over  it — on  a  donkey — 

S.  Joao  comprou  um  burro 
Para  pular  as  fogueiras 
E  depois  de  as  pular  todas 
Deu-o  de  presente  as  freiras. 

(St.  John  bought  a  donkey  to  leap  over  the  fires,  and  when 
he  had  leapt  over  them  all  he  gave  it  as  a  present  to  the  nuns.) 
Possibly  the  donkey  enables  him  to  go  from  one  fire  to  the 
other,  from  hill  to  hill,  and  village  to  village. 

In  Beira1  a  pine  tree  is  pulled  up,  a  procession  going  out 
to  the  woods  with  drums  and  pipes.  Then  the  smaller 
branches  are  lopped  off,  and  as  a  galheiro  it  is  decked  with 
ferns  and  rosemary  and  other  scented  shrubs  and  so  burnt. 
When  the  fire  has  burnt  down  to  a  heap  of  glowing  logs  and 
faggots  children  and  grown  persons  jump  over  it,  chanting 
various  rhymes  to  bring  them  health  and  good  luck  through 
the  year  till  next  fire-tide.  It  does  not  seem  to  be  the  custom 
to  roll  a  stone  on  to  the  ashes,  as  in  the  South  of  France,  where 
the  beard  of  St.  John  is  found  next  morning  under  the  stones. 

1  See  Dr.  J.  Leite  de  Vasconcellos'  fascinating  Ensaios  Ethnogra- 
phicos,  4  vols.  (1896-1910). 


54  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

But,  although  St.  John's  Eve  is  in  Portugal  recognised  as 
essentially  the  night  of  song  and  love — 

Cantao  mo9as,  cantao  velhas 
Na  noite  de  Sao  Joao. 
(Young  maidens  and  old  women  sing 

Alike  on  St.  John's  Eve). 
Esta  noite  e  de  segredos 
Noite  de  amores  e  ciumes  : 
Quant os  nacem,  quantos  morrem 
Hoje  a  volta  destes  lumes  ! 
Na  noite  de  Sao  Joao 
£  que  e  tomar  amores, 
Que  estao  os  trigos  nos  campos 
Tod  os  com  as  suas  flores. 

(St.  John's  night  yields 

Love's  fairest  hour, 

For  the  corn  in  the  fields 

Is  all  aflower.) 

many  superstitious  beliefs  are  also  connected  with  this  night. 

Its  hours  between  midnight  and  dawn  are  among  the  most 

precious  of  ail  the  year,  and  no  witch  who  has 

SuSerstitions  the  least  inklmg  of  ^er  business  will  waste  a 
single  instant  of  them.  The  dews  (orvalhadas) 
then  gathered  have  a  special  virtue,  as  also  rosemary  and 
other  herbs  and  water  brought  from  the  mountains  and 
streams.  By  the  fountains  appear  enchanted  Moorish  maidens 
combing  their  hair  with  combs  of  gold,  and  many  other  spirits 
are  abroad.  It  is  the  night,  too,  of  the  great  blue  thistles 
or  Jerusalem  artichokes  (alcachofras)  and  other  auguries  of 
love.  Next  morning,  on  St.  John's  Day,  the  sun  dances  at  its 
rising.  So  a  Galician  romance  begins  with  these  lines — 

Madrugada  de  San  Joan, 

Madrugada  a  mais  garrida, 

Que  baila  o  sol  cando  nace 

E  ri  cando  morre  o  dia. 
(The  morning  of  St.  John, 
Fairest  of  all  the  year, 
For  the  sun  at  its  rising  dances 
And  laughs  when  the  day  dies.) 


Life  in  Town  and  Country  55 

Even  at  Lisbon  St.  John's  night  is  celebrated  with  genuine 
enthusiasm,  and  the  dark  blue  flower  of  the  artichoke  abounds 
in  the  markets. 

Such  a  fete  is  far  more  popular  than  the  bull-fight,  about 
which  in  Portugal  there  seems  to  be  something  a  little  artificial, 

with  none  of  the  fierce  passion  that  it  evokes 
Bull^ht        m    Spain.     As    a    spectacular    display    the 

Portuguese  touradas  can  be  very  fine,  and 
there  is  no  horror  of  killed  horses,  though  the  toreador  himself 
has  been  killed  before  now,  despite  the  bull's  blunted  horns. 
The  death  of  the  well-known  Portuguese  bull-fighter  Fernando 
d'Oliveira,  in  Lisbon's  bull-ring  at  the  Campo  Pequeno  on  the 
12th  of  May,  1904,  caused  an  immense  impression.  A  special 
feature  in  Portugal  are  the  touradas  noclurnas  (first  introduced 
in  1880),  carried  on  by  artificial  light.  The  more  spirited 
among  the  young  men  looking  on  are  keen  to  show  their  own 
skill  and  valour  in  the  arena,  and  on  special  occasions  the 
toreadores  are  of  noble  birth. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  surprise  of  the  Englishman  visiting 
Portugal,  especially  if  he  comes  from  Spain,  where  he  may 

have  imbibed  the  false  notion  that  the  Por- 
Sports.         tuguese    are    an    enervated    and    decadent 

people,  is  to  find  that  a  considerable  and 
ever-growing  number  of  Portuguese  take  part  and  interest 
in  sports  and  games — horse-racing,  regattas,  lawn-tennis, 
football,  motoring,  riding,  fencing,  swimming.  Football  and 
lawn-tennis  are  fairly  common,  cricket  is  played  at  Oporto, 
and  in  spite  of  a  vague  belief  that  golf  is  played  by  the  mad 
Englishman  on  horseback,  his  object  being  to  hit  the  ball  and 
arrive  on  the  green  before  it,  a  golf-links  is  to  be  laid  down 
in  the  grounds  of  the  new  thermal  establishment,  hotel  and 
casino  at  Estoril. 

In  Portugal  there  is  a  small  and  narrowing  circle  of  old 
<<B     .j  .      ,,    nobility,     haughty     and     aloof,      naturally 

growing  more  aloof  as  they  have  seen  in 
recent  years  titles  showered  or  money  made  the  sole  measure 


56  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

of  respect.  Lisbon,  certainly,  materialistic  as  a  South 
American  city,  is  at  the  feet  of  the  first  brazileiro  who 
returns  rich  to  his  native  land. 

At  Oporto,  too,  although  the  atmosphere  is  totally  different 

from  that  of  Lisbon,  the  enriched  brazileiro  plays  a  great  part. 

It  is,  of  course,  principally  a  business  city, 

Oporto.         and  has  something  grim  and  forbidding,  a 

reserve  foreign  to  Lisbon.     The  large  number 

of  English  wine  merchants  and  its  communications  by  sea 

prevent  it,  however,  from  being  a  typical  Portuguese  city. 

This  is  reserved  for  Braga  in  the  north,  which  retains  a 

peculiar  old-world  flavour,   and  where  probably  there  are 

not  more  than  half-a-dozen  foreigners.     As 

Braga.          most  towns  in  Portugal,  it  is  a  steep  city  on 

a  hill,  its  streets  of  houses  of  many-coloured 

azulejos,   tiles,  and  washes,  going  up  precipitously  to   the 

splendid  old  cathedral.     The  inhabitants  are  conservative 

as  mountaineers,  and  it  has  the  reputation  of  being  a  stronghold 

of  the  reactionaries. 

The  outlook  on  life  in  the  North  and  in  the  South  of  Portugal 
seems  often,  indeed,  poles  asunder,  the  North  conservative, 
reserved,  slow ;    the  South  more  expansive, 
N<Southnd       liberal>    and    socialist,   and    the    inhabitants 
of  Minho  will  look  upon  the  inhabitant  of 
Algarve  as  little  less  of  a  stranger  than  the  Frenchman  or  the 
Spaniard,  indeed  more  of  a  stranger  than  his  northern  neigh- 
bour of  Galicia.     The  inhabitants  of  the  North  are  certainly 
more  independent :    in  the  South,  and  especially  in  all  the 
district  round  Lisbon,  political  intrigue  and  office-hunting,  and 
invasion  of  foreigners,  have  had  a  bad  influence  on  character. 
Perhaps  in  no  region  on  earth  is  begging  more  general.     It 
is  not  only  the  lamuria,  the  woeful  ladainhas  of  the  beggars 
in  the  streets  and  on  the  roads,  with  their 
Begging.        strange  tales  or  worn  pieces  of  paper  telling 
of  "  disastrous  chances  "  and  "  moving  acci- 
dents/' in  spelling  still  more  disastrous.    You  may  say  that 


Life  in  Town  and  Country  57 

you  have  no  money  to  give  or  that  you  will  not  give  it,  but 
that  will  not  move  them.  The  shibboleth  to  get  rid  of  them  is 
Tenha  paciencia  (Have  patience  :  the  very  last  thing  they 
require),  which  corresponds  in  effectiveness  to  the  Perdone 
Vd.  por  Dios,  the  pardon  asked  in  the  name  of  God  of  Spanish 
beggars  for  giving  them  nothing.  It  means  presumably  that 
you  have  a  hardened  and  obdurate  heart,  that  you  have  heard 
it  all  before,  and  are  up  to  all  their  tricks  and  devices  :  at 
least  they  immediately  depart  with  gently  muttered  impreca- 
tions. These  unfortunate  persons  are  from  time  to  time 
swept  up  promiscuously,  the  knaves  and  the  deserving,  by 
the  police,  and  shut  up  in  the  worst  cells  of  the  Lisbon  prisons 
till  they  can  be  shipped  overseas  with  far  less  care  or  concern 
than  a  cargo  of  frozen  meat.  Meanwhile  their  confreres  in 
higher  grades  of  society  continue  in  their  no  less  degrading 
mendicity  :  for  an  official  post,  a  trade  concession,  a  favour- 
able verdict  in  the  law-courts,  a  this,  a  that,  sinecures  and 
trifles,  in  an  endless  intrigue  to  arranjar  whatever  necessity 
or  ambition  demands  at  the  hands  of  friends,  Government 
officials,  deputies,  politicians. 

And  the  number  of  Government  officials  is  enormous  and 
increases.  It  is  the  object  of  all  to  attain  this  dignity.  For  the 

higher  posts  a  University  degree  is  a  help, 
Officials.        and  many  go  to  Coimbra  solely  with  this 

obj  ect  in  view.  (In  the  seventeenth  century, 
according  to  the  Arte  de  Furtar  (1652),  over  a  hundred 
"  students "  yearly  succeeded  in  taking  their  degree  at 
Coimbra  in  order  to  obtain  government  employment  with- 
out ever  having  been  in  Coimbra.)  But  even  the  cantoneiro, 
who  receives  something  under  a  shilling  from  the  State 
to  mend  or  omit  to  mend  the  roads  of  Portugal,  thereby 
rises  a  step  in  the  social  scale  and,  if  he  starves,  starves 
with  authority.  It  is  the  duty  of  a  political  leader  to  pro- 
vide places  high  and  low  for  as  large  a  number  of  followers 
as  possible :  herein  will  be  gauged  the  measure  of  his  suc- 
cess. There  is  thus  continually  a  great  moral  (or  immoral) 


58  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

force  persistently  at  work  to  overthrow  the  existing  Govern- 
ment, which  is  like  a  solitary  batsman  with  not  only  the 
bowler — the  legitimate  Opposition — against  him,  but  the 
whole  field  and  all  the  spectators  (hostile  or  indifferent). 
For  the  Portuguese  are  like  the  frogs,  never  content  until 
King  Log  has  been  replaced  by  King  Stork,  and  not  very 
content  then.  For  them  the  bird  in  the  hand  is  never  half 
so  fine  as  the  two  in  the  bush,  and  they  go  on  intriguing, 
insinuating,  imagining  novidades  and  betterment,  both  in 
private  and  public  life,  forgetful  of  their  own  proverb,  Do  mat 
o  menos  (Let  sleeping  dogs  lie).  Politics  sometimes  causes 
disturbances  at  Coimbra.  The  University,  formerly  Liberal, 
has  now  become  Conservative,  "  reactionary  "  in  its  dislike 
of  the  methods  of  the  "  White  Ants." 

This,  the  only  Portuguese  University,  answering  to  Oxford 
and  Cambridge,  and  old  as  they,  is  built  on  a  hill  in  a  delightful 
position  above  the  Mondego,  perhaps  the  most 
beautiful  of  Portugal's  many  beautiful  rivers, 
flowing  through  a  country  lovely  in  itself  and 
endeared  to  all  Portuguese  by  its  traditions  of  history  and 
legend,  of  which  a  great  book  might  be  filled.  The  teaching 
at  Coimbra  is  apt  to  be  too  theoretical  and  to  embrace  too 
many  fields,  to  the  loss  of  exact  scholarship.  Many  attend 
the  lectures  and  rarely  open  a  book.  Literary  discussions  are 
frequent  unless  momentarily  submerged  by  politics,  and  of 
course  much  ingenuity  is  always  expended  on  skit  and  trofa 
and  epigram.  Actual  book-learning  and  accurate  study  of 
texts  are  less  in  favour  (especially  among  the  cabulas  or 
calaceiros,  i.e.,  students  whose  mission  in  life  is  to  take  the 
key  of  the  fields).  Rows  between  town  (futricas)  and  gown 
are  not  unknown.  The  undergraduates  are  divided  into 
caloiros  (becjaune,  fledgling,  fresher),  novatos  and  veteranos, 
and  live  in  considerable  freedom,  in  lodgings  or  hotels, 
or  clubbing  together  in  republican  composed  of  a  few 
students  often  from  the  same  province,  algarvios,  minhotos, 
beiroes. 


Life  in  Town  and  Country  59 

Thus  even  here  are  maintained  those  distinctions  between 
region  and  region,  which  form  no  little  part  of  the  attraction 
of  Portugal  for  the  traveller.  Scarcely  for 
t^le  trave^er  *n  trains  :  if  anyone  wishes  to 
write  a  valuable  and  delightful  book  on  Spain 
and  Portugal,  let  his  travels  be  with  a  donkey,  or  on  foot, 
selling,  say,  saffron  or  images  of  saints,  and  he  will  be  amply 
rewarded  for  whatever  little  discomforts  he  may  have  to 
endure.  The  dress  and  gold  ornaments  of  the  peasant  women 
of  the  North  have  been  often  described,  and  if  Minho  deserved 
visiting  for  nothing  else  it  would  be  worth  while  to  go  there 
in  order  to  see  some  out-of-the-way  village  prafa  (consisting 
often  of  the  high  road)  on  a  market  day  gleaming  with  gold, 
if  not  purple,  more  than  all  the  cohorts  of  Sennacherib.  Some 
of  the  women  are  entirely  covered  with  necklaces  from  neck 
almost  to  the  waist,  and  wear  one  or  more  pairs  of  earrings 
often  several  inches  in  length.  But  even  the  boeirinha,  the 
little  ox-girl  who  goes  dressed  in  scarlet  and  gold  with  her 
huge  goad  in  front  of  the  oxen,  will  have  her  gold  ornament. 
It  is  in  the  North  that  the  oxen  wear  on  their  heads  those 
strange  erections,  often  beautifully  carved,  called  cangas. 
In  Minho,  too,  chiefly  survives  the  use  of  the  cloak  of  reeds — 
corona — which,  according  to  the  author  of  Costume  of  Portugal, 
was  adopted  by  certain  English  officers  who  had  seen  it  in 
Portugal  nearly  a  century  ago,and  admired  its  convenience  and 
capacity  for  keeping  out  the  rain,  which  runs  off  it  as  water 
from  a  duck's  back  :  a  useful  property  in  a  country  like  Por- 
tugal, where  the  autumn,  winter,  and  spring  rains  are  often 
heavy  and  sometimes  continuous.  For  the  Portuguese,  except 
for  some  districts  of  Traz  os  Montes  and  Beira,  winter  consists 
of  rain,  not  cold,  and  the  rain  at  most  develops  a  suspicion  of 
sleet  (chuva  branca).  But  as  a  rule  that  good  sun  of  Portugal, 
which  has  the  property  of  warming  without  burning,  is  ever 
lurking  round  the  corner,  ready  to  appear  on  the  first  pretext. 
A  familiar  sight  in  Alemtejo  and  the  Sena  da  Estrella  are 
the  shepherds,  the  rabaddos  and  zagaes,  dressed  in  brown 


60  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

fleeces,  with  their  huge  umbrellas  of  faded  blue  slung  across 
their  shoulders.  The  late  Conde  de  Ficalho,  in  the  first 

volume  of  A  Tradifdo  (1899),  described  in 
Shepherds.  an  interesting  paper  the  shepherds  of 

Alemtejo,  living  a  nomad  life  from  pasture  to 
pasture,  after  the  fashion  of  the  Arabs,  transferring  their 
clothes  and  food  and  implements  on  donkeys,  as  in  Gil  Vicente. 
Many  of  the  words  they  use  are  of  Arabic  origin,  as  al/eire 
(a  flock  of  young  lambs)  or  the  alfirme  used  to  tie  the  sheep's 
legs  for  the  shearing.  They  wear  a  pellico,  i.e.,  a  great  jacket 
of  fleeces  sewn  together  with  corriol  (strips  of  leather)  or  a 
famarro,  which  consists  merely  of  two  fleeces  without  sleeves. 
The  shepherd  earns  a  small  salary  (soldada)  and  his  food 
(comedia),  and  has  certain  sheep  of  his  own  (his  pegulhal). 
The  shepherds  of  the  Sena  da  Estrella  are  more  stationary. 
Sun  and  wind  have  fanned  and  tanned  them  till  they  some- 
times resemble  nothing  so  much  as  an  old  dead  tree-trunk 
scarred  by  lightning,  and  they  may  be  seen  standing  motion- 
less as  a  tree  hour  after  hour  in  the  bare  Sena.  They  are  as 
remote  from  the  twentieth  century  as  are  the  days  of  Romulus 
and  Remus,  and  their  customs  and  those  of  the  quaint  villages 
set  in  the  deep  ravines  of  the  Sena  are  worth  a  careful  study, 
belonging  as  they  do  to  an  age  long  past,  before  civilisation 
sweeps  them  away.  Read  or  write  the  inhabitants  cannot, 
books  and  newspapers  are  unknown  ;  but  they  maintain 
an  old-world  courtesy  and  dignity  of  bearing  which  are 
attractive.  They  constitute  one  of  the  most  characteristic 
parts  of  the  Portuguese  people,  one  of  the  most  interesting 
elements  in  the  infinite  variety  of  Portuguese  life. 


A    SHEPHERD 


CHAPTER   IV 

RELIGION   AND  EDUCATION 

"  To  persecute  is  to  propagate/'  said  one  of  the  greatest 
modern  Portuguese,  Alexandre  Herculano,  and  a  Lisbon 
newspaper,  0  Diario  de  Noticias  (22nd  March, 

1901)'  could  declare  that  "toleration  in 
matters  of  religion  has  with  us  been  almost 
unbroken."  The  anti-clerical  agitation  in  Portugal  in  the 
year  1901  was  for  the  most  part  an  artificial  echo  of  the 
agitation  in  Spain  (the  year  of  P6rez  Galdos'  Electro),  encour- 
aged for  political  purposes.  Popular  demonstrations  were 
organised  and  cheers  raised  for  Liberty,  Democracy,  and 
Snr.  Manoel  da  Arriaga  (subsequently  the  first  President  of  the 
Republic).  On  the  10th  of  March  the  Civil  Governors  were 
ordered  to  inquire  whether  any  religious  houses  existed  under 
illegal  conditions,  that  is,  contrary  to  the  Concordat  between 
Portugal  and  the  Vatican.  Properly,  in  view  of  the  law  of 
May,  1834,  only  the  religious  orders  concerned  with  education, 
charity,  nursing,  and  foreign  missions  had  the  right  to  exist. 
On  the  1 1th  of  March  fresh  disturbances  occurred,  and  on  the 
13th  a  decree  was  published  ordering  the  inspection  of  those 
religious  houses  which  could  show  their  title  to  exist  and  the 
closure  of  all  others.  But  there  was  in  reality  no  "  religious 
question  "  in  Portugal,  no  comparison  with  the  situation  in 
France  and  Spain. 

The  religious  congregations  took  no  part  in  industry  nor 
did  they  evade  the  taxes  (these  are  the  two  chief  popular 
charges    against    them    in    Spain).     On    the 

other  hand'  they  did  much  &ood  'work  among 
the   poor,   and   performed   useful   service   in 

education.     To  many  their  sudden  expulsion  may  seem   a 
foolish  and  brutal  measure.     But  France  had  banished  the 

61 


62  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

congregations,  and  those  Portuguese  politicians  who  model 
their  actions  on  those  of  France  must  follow  suit  without 
inquiring  whether  the  action  of  France  in  this  respect  had  been 
wise  or  its  results  beneficial,  or  whether  the  conditions  in 
France  and  Portugal  were  identical.  Henry  VIII  of  England 
abolished  the  monasteries  because  they  were  rich,  and  the 
fabulous  wealth  attributed  to  the  religious  houses  no  doubt 
largely  inspired  the  modern  cry  of  anti-clericalism.  What 
must  have  been  the  disappointment  when  the  wealth  of  some 
of  the  Portuguese  congregations  was  found  to  consist  of  nothing 
but  a  few  musty  and  worm-eaten  volumes.  Had  the  same 
arbitrary  measures  been  adopted  against  a  literary  or  indus- 
trial association,  there  would  have  been  an  outcry  throughout 
the  world  at  the  tyranny  or  injustice :  but  these  were  only 
poor  religious,  men  and  women  who  had  deliberately  chosen 
to  lead  that  kind  of  life,  in  many  ways  an  ideal  life  in  Portugal. 
Why  happiness  thus  attained  by  a  few  should  be  so  obnoxious 
to  the  modern  politician  is  one  of  the  mysteries  of  progress. 

Soil  ich  vielleicht  in  tausend  Buchern  lesen 
Dass  uberall  die  Menschen  sich  gequalt 
Dass  hie  und  da  ein  Gliicklicher  gewesen  ? 

But  the  religious  orders  will  return  to  Portugal,  and  those 
beautifully  situated  and  beautifully  built  convents  once  more 
fulfil  their  proper  purpose.  Or,  if  they  do  not  return,  almost 
certainly  in  the  course  of  time  groups  of  men  and  women  will 
separate  themselves  from  society  and  live  a  philosophical  life 
apart — religious  orders  under  another  name.  If  they  can 
combine  philosophy,  literature,  and  art  with  manual  labour 
the  expulsion  of  the  original  orders  will  not  have  been  in  vain. 
We  shall  have  the  Order  of  Carpenters  and  Musicians  at 
Belem,  of  Cobblers  and  Sculptors  at  Alcobasa,  of  Philosophers 
and  Tailors  at  Batalha,  of  Painters  and  Ploughmen  at  Thomar, 
of  Poets  and  Foresters  at  Bussaco,  and  so  on.  It  was  easy 
for  demagogues  to  persuade  the  people,  in  whose  eyes  omne 
ignotum  pro — malefico,  that  dreadful  crimes  were  committed 
behind  convent  walls,  just  as  the  uneducated  Russian  believes 


Religion  and  Education  63 

that  the  Jews  sacrifice  Christian  children,  and  the  expulsion 
of  the  religious  orders  figured  as  the  most  prominent  item  on 
the  programme  of  the  Republicans,  and  was  put  into  practice 
immediately  after  the  Revolution  of  1910. 

Considering  the  great  services  of  monks  and  nuns  in  educa- 
tion, in  nursing,  and  in  the  Portuguese  possessions  overseas, 

the  only  fair  course  in  Portugal  would  have 
Jesuits          keen  at  the  most  to  banish  the  Jesuits,  if 

their  action  was  thought  to  be  political,  and 
any  congregations  that  had  emigrated  to  Portugal  after  their 
expulsion  from  France.  For  the  rest,  they  could  be  under- 
mined slowly  by  education  :  obviously  if  no  new  members 
were  found  willing  to  profess  they  would  come  to  an  end  of 
their  own  accord.  The  Jesuits,  whom  half-educated  Republic- 
ans, knowing  very  little  about  them,  believe  to  be  peculiarly 
maleficent  and  satanic,  were  not  very  numerous  in  Portugal. 
In  the  beginning  of  1909  there  were  only  355  as  compared  with 
3,002  in  Spain.  In  the  beginning  of  1910  there  were  in 
Portugal  387  (161  priests,  123  coadjutors,  and  103  students). 
It  may  or  may  not  have  been  expedient  to  expel  them,  but 
in  any  case  they  stood  upon  a  different  footing  from  that  of 
the  other  religious  houses,  whose  sudden  expulsion  brought 
consternation  and  misery  to  many  a  village.  But  the  action 
of  the  reformers  did  not  stop  here  :  it  was  extended  to  the 
secular  clergy,  and  seemed  to  be  directed  against  the  very 
existence  of  religion.  The  precept  of  0  Seculo  a  few  years 
earlier  (llth  March,  1901)  was  forgotten  :  "  It  is  necessary 
not  to  confuse  the  religion  of  the  State  with  Jesuitism,  our 
regular  clergy  with  the  Jesuits/' 

Portugal  had  been  fortunate  in  possessing  an  enlightened 
clergy.    Many  priests  were  liberal  in  politics,  and  only  a  few 

of  them — in  some  remote  parts  of  the  country 
d       — were  fanatics.     The  mass  of  the  people  is 

equally  unfanatic.  But  only  a  section  of  the 
population  of  a  single  city — Lisbon — is  non-Catholic.  Indeed, 
according  to  one  computation,  there  are  only  six  thousand 


64  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

non-Catholics  in  Portugal,  or  one  in  every  thousand  inhabit- 
ants. To  the  mass  of  the  people  religion  is  a  pleasant  show, 
and  a  refuge  from  the  grinding  reality  of  their  lives,  the  Church 
ceremonies,  the  processions  and  pilgrimages  are  the  notes  of 
holiday  and  gaiety  in  the  villages. l  To  the  educated  it  was 
part  of  the  glorious  traditions  of  Portugal's  past,  ever  intimately 
connected  with  religion  (fe  e  imperio.  Camoes,  Lusiads,  I,  2), 
so  that  the  extreme  anti-clerical  who  carries  his  creed  to  the 
length  of  striking  at  the  root  and  existence  of  religion  will, 
if  he  is  logical,  look  askance  at  those  Portuguese  heroes  who 
fought  in  Portugal  and  in  India  in  the  name  of  Santiago,  and  at 
the  most  magnificent  old  buildings  in  Portugal.  The  cry  of 
anti-clericalism  in  Portugal  has  proved  itself  in  the  Spanish 
phrase  a  necedad  de  siete  capas — seven  times  foolishness.  It 
is  not  in  any  sense  national,  but  has  been  imported  bodily 
from  abroad.  Senhor  Teixeira  de  Sousa,  the  last  Premier  of 
the  Monarchy,  said  in  an  interview  to  a  correspondent  of 
Le  Matin :  "La  question  cl&ricale  ne  se  pose  pas  ici  comme 
en  Espagne,  car  le  peuple  portugais  n'est  pas  clerical."  So 
the  Republican  Intransigente  could  say  later  (31st  December, 
1911)  :  "  There  was  no  religious  question  in  the  country,  and 
now  the  religious  question,  provoked  by  certain  measures  of 
a  secondary  character  and  by  the  so-called  Law  of  Separation 
between  Church  and  State,  rises  over  the  country  like  a  menace 
of  civil  war."  And  the  anti-clerical  Mundo  itself  admitted 
(9th  March,  1914)  that  the  religious  question  in  Portugal 
"  has  never  had  the  serious  aspect  which  it  has  had  in  other 
nations.  ...  If  recently  the  religious  question  has  begun  to 
make  itself  felt  that  is  due  to  the  deference  of  certain  persons 
who  call  themselves  Republicans  to  clerical  pretensions." 
Thus  the  religious  question,  having  been  provoked  by  anti- 
clericalism,  was  to  receive  a  homoeopathic  remedy — more 
anti-clericalism.  Gambetta  had  exclaimed,  "  Le  Clericalisme, 
voild  I'ennemi,"  and  Portuguese  politicians  had  adopted  this 

1  For  the  description  of  a  romaria  (pilgrimage)  see  Snr.  Teixeira  de 
Queiroz'  novel,  A    Cantadeira.     Lisboa,    1913. 


Religion  and  Education  65 

cry  from  Paris.  In  the  public  schools  religion  has  been  for- 
bidden by  law,  in  the  private  it  has  only  been  given  at  the 
expense  of  denunciation  and  persecution.  When  it  is  remem- 
bered that  in  many  parishes  the  priests  have  been  deprived 
of  all  authority,  it  will  be  seen  how  little  chance  there  is  of  the 
children  receiving  any  religious  instruction.  Portuguese 
Democrats  if  they  have  ever  heard  of  Cecil  Rhodes  probably 
know  that  he  was  no  reactionary.  It  is  worth  quoting  his 
words  :  "  Their  school  years  are  the  years  in  which  to  tell  the 
children  that  there  is  one  thing  better  than  material  instruc- 
tion, and  that  is  religious  belief."  But  in  Portugal  now 
thousands  of  children  are  being  brought  up  to  regard  material 
prosperity  as  the  only  good.  There  is  no  God  but  Gold,  and 
the  Republic  is  its  prophet.  The  new  narrow  system  of 
education  may  turn  out  shrewd,  materialistic,  tram-and- 
asphalt  citizens,  but  in  a  larger  sense  and  in  the  long  run 
Portugal  is  likely  to  suffer.  It  may  be  found  when  it  is  too 
late  that  the  cera  branda  has  been  moulded  to  ill  purpose. 

The  Law  of  Separation  between  Church  and  State  was 

drawn  up  by  Dr.  Affonso  Costa  as  Minister  of  Justice  (20th 

April,  1911).     It  is  a  long  document  of  196 

The  Law  of     clauses,  closely  following  French  models    or 

Separation  ,,    y      .  ,.    ,     .     . 

(1911).         modifying  them  in  a  still  more  anti-clerical 

direction.  Yet  there  were  many  considera- 
tions which  should  have  given  extreme  anti-clericalism  pause 
in  Portugal.  With  a  clergy  not  in  principle  opposed  to  the 
Republic,  it  might  have  been  possible  to  come  to  an  excellent 
working  compromise.  Many  of  the  priests  even  acquiesce  in 
the  principle  of  separation  between  Church  and  State,  but 
Dr.  Costa's  law,  they  complain,  while  pretending  to  separate 
Church  from  State,  in  reality  subjugates  the  Church  to  a 
hostile  State.  And  it  is  not  the  priests  only  who  say  it. 
'The  decree  of  20th  April,  1911,"  says  A  Republica  (13th 
March,  1914),  "  affected  to  separate  the  Churches  from  the 
State,  but  did  nothing  but  subject  the  Catholic  Church  to 
the  intervention  of  the  Republic."  These  are  the  words  of 

5— (2404) 


66  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

an  extremely  Republican  paper.  The  priests  by  this  Law 
must  either  receive  State  pensions  or  starve  ;  their  authority 
has  been  replaced  by  that  of  the  public  worship  associations, 
often  organised  by  persons  hostile  to  religion.  They  are 
deprived  of  the  possession  of  the  churches,  and  even  of  the 
bishops'  and  priests'  houses,  even  of  the  libraries  carefully 
added  to  by  successive  bishops.  They  are  not  allowed  to 
wear  clerical  dress.  The  authority  of  the  higher  ecclesiastics 
is  carefully  undermined,  and  the  bishops  are  not  permitted 
even  to  issue  a  pastoral  letter  without  previous  censorship  of 
the  Government. 

These  and  other  real  grievances  as  well  as  many  petty 
restrictions,  such  as  the  prohibition  of  processions,  of  services 

and   ringing   of   bells   between    sunrise   and 
Processions,      sunset,  mark  a  narrow  spirit  which  has  made 

it  impossible  for  the  whole  of  the  North  of 
Portugal  to  sympathise  with  the  Republic.  Dr.  Costa  has 
been  the  Royalists'  great  asset.  "Oh,  but  there  is  no  such 
prohibition,"  say  the  Democrats  ;  "  the  law  does  not  forbid 
processions."  It  contents  itself  with  rendering  them  impos- 
sible. Clause  57  runs  :  "  Ceremonies,  processions,  and  other 
external  manifestations  of  religion  will  only  be  permitted 
where  and  in  so  far  as  they  are  an  inveterate  custom  of  the 
majority  of  the  citizens  of  a  district,  and  must  be  immediately 
and  definitely  forbidden  in  places  where  the  faithful  or  other 
persons  without  a  protest  on  their  part  make  the  processions 
an  occasion  for  provoking  tumults  and  disturbances  of  public 
order."  Thus  the  procedure  is  simple.  You  have  only  to 
throw  a  stone  at  a  priest  or  other  person  in  a  procession.  If 
the  faithful  protest  there  is  a  tumult,  if  they  fail  to  protest 
there  has  been  a  disturbance  of  public  order.  The  procession  is 
henceforth  forbidden.  Yet  to  deprive  the  people  of  these 
simple  pleasures  is  a  kind  of  sacrilege.  In  the  remote  villages 
they  have  few  others.  Those  who  know  to  what  an  extent 
in  Latin  countries  these  ceremonies  partake  of  a  secular  as 
well  as  a  religious  character  realise  the  sadness  which  descends 


Religion  and  Education  67 

upon  a  village  when  docked  of  its  processions.  They  are  the 
villager's  theatre  as  well  as  his  prayer  book.  The  men,  it  is 
true,  can  substitute  the  tavern,  and  the  women  do  not  count. 
Let  them  stay  in  their  black  kitchens,  often  as  dirty  and 
airless  as  the  taverns,  and  mind  their  pots  and  their  pans. 

That  the  Republic  could  be  so  blind  to  its  own  interests  as 

to  adopt  these  Jacobin  courses  would  be  strange  indeed,  were 

it  not  that  evidently  the  interests  of  a  party 

A  Religious  had  been  pref erred  to  those  of  the  Republic. 
Recently  (i.e.,  before  14th  May,  1915)  a  far 
more  moderate  attitude  and  methods  more  conciliatory  have 
been  adopted,  but  in  the  question  of  religion  fresh  legislation, 
as  well  as  a  new  spirit,  will  be  required.  All  men  of  sense, 
from  the  President,  Dr.  Arriaga,  downwards,  recognise  that  the 
Law  of  Separation  will  have  to  be  altered  in  a  more  moderate 
direction.  In  this  connection  A  Republica  (6th  March,  1914) 
used  the  following  words,  in  connection  with  the  Amnesty 
of  1914  :  "To  grant  an  amnesty  to  priests  who  have  acted 
illegally  because  their  religious  conscience  bade  them  oppose 
certain  clauses  in  the  Law  of  Separation  is  merely  to  say  to 
these  priests,  '  You  leave  prison  to-day  in  order  to  come  back 
to  it  to-morrow/  '  When  Dr.  Affonso  Costa  became  Prime 
Minister  in  1913  revision  of  this  law  was  promised,  but  during 
his  year  of  office  it  was  not  revised.  Under  his  successor, 
Dr.  Bernardino  Machado,  discussion  of  the  Law  began,  but 
still  it  was  not  revised.  Its  revision  would,  however,  be 
assured,  were  it  realised  that  the  Republic  by  violent  anti- 
clericalism  is  defeating  its  own  objects.  For — not  to  mention 
the  wholesome  discipline  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  and 
its  democratic  tendency — such  anti-clericalism  is  in  danger 
of  driving  moderate  Roman  Catholics  into  something  like 
fanaticism  and  of  creating  a  religious  revival. 

The  census  of  191 1  gives  the  number  of  illiterates  in  Portugal 
as  75- 1  per  cent,  of  the  entire  population  (men,  68-4  per  cent.  ; 
women,  81'2),  and  this  at  least  is  not  the  fault  of  the  priests, 
since  religion  was  taken  out  of  their  hands  in  1834.  This 


68  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

extraordinary  figure  of  75- 1  includes  small  children  ;  excluding 
children  under  seven  the  figures  are  69*7  (men,  GO'S  ;  women, 
77' 4).  The  progress  has  been  slow  in  the 
Illiterates.  last  twenty  years.  In  1890  the  total  percent- 
age of  illiterates  was  79'2  per  cent.  (1,762,842 
men  and  2,238,115  women).  In  1900  it  was  78'6  (1,855,091 
men  and  2,406,245  women).  In  1911  the  number  of  men  who 
cannot  reader  write  was  1,936,131,  and  of  women  2,541,947  ; 
or,  excluding  children  under  seven,  1,370,571  men,  1,989,906 
women.  The  Republic  was  ushered  in  with  pompous  phrases 
concerning  education.  In  a  few  years  there  were  to  be  no 
more  illiterates,  in  a  few  years  there  was  to  be  a  school  to 
every  two  kilometres  throughout  the  country.  But  there  has 
been  danger  of  more  attention  being  given  to  the  show  than 
to  the  substance  of  reform,  and  of  education  becoming  more 
and  more  a  whited  sepulchre.  Yet  apart  from  mistakes  made 
and  hollow  promises  put  forward  for  foreign  consumption, 
but  quite  meaningless  in  Portugal,  one  must  admit  that  the 
Republicans  realise  the  importance  of  education  and  have  a 
sincere  desire  to  diminish  the  number  of  illiterates  (as  though 
that  in  itself  were  a  great  gain  !),  and  may  hope  that  their 
efforts  in  the  matter  of  education  will  be  more  successful  in 
future  than  they  have  been  in  the  past.  The  institution  of 
night  schools  and  itinerant  masters  is  no  doubt  a  step  in  the 
right  direction. 

The  method  adopted  has  been  to  draw  up  ideally  excellent 
decrees,  and  the  hope  is  presumably  that  they  will  gradually 
work  down  into  touch  with  the  facts  of  Portu- 
School?         guese  life.     Meanwhile  they  tend  to  remain 
mere  pieces  of  paper.     The   decree   of   29th 
March,    1911,   reforming  primary  education  is  little  more. 
Primary  education  was  transferred  from  the  control  of  the 
State  to  that  of  the  local  authorities,  which  tend  to  neglect  it 
altogether.    The  failure  of  the  mitnicipios  to  pay  the  school- 
masters had  been  already  manifest  when  primary  instruction 
was  entrusted  to  them  in  1881,  and  they  were  empowered  to 


Religion  and  Education  69 

levy  a  special  tax  for  the  purpose.  The  law  of  1911  made  edu- 
cation compulsory  and  neutral  in  the  matter  of  religion.  It  had 
been  compulsory  since  1878,  with  the  results  already  described. 
The  Republicans  boast  that  they  have  created  a  large  number 
of  schools,  over  900  primary  schools  in  three  years,  but  in 
reality  it  would  have  been  better  to  see  to  an  improvement  in 
the  condition  of  the  6,000  existing  schools,  and  to  the  payment 
of  the  schoolmasters'  salaries.  The  foundation  of  a  school  in 
Portugal  is  a  very  simple  affair,  almost  as  simple  as  the  issuing 
of  a  decree.  It  consists  in  fixing  on  a  room  or  a  house  in  a 
village  which  might  be  used  for  that  purpose  and — there  the 
matter  generally  ends.  Neither  books  nor  furniture  nor 
masters  are  provided,  and  that  not  from  any  carelessness  or 
indifference  but  because  there  is  no  money  to  pay  for  them. 
Thus,  Snr.  Antonio  Macieira,  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs  in 
Dr.  Costa's  Government,  declared  in  a  speech  made  on  28th 
March,  1913,  that  to  replace  the  115  schools  of  the  expelled 
religious  congregations  the  Republic  had  created  991  new 
schools.  Of  these  991,  he  continued  blandly  to  state,  556 
were  non-existent.  The  Monarchy  had  not  neglected  educa- 
tion, even  though  it  cannot  claim  to  have  founded  schools  at 
the  rate  of  half-a-dozen  a  week.  In  1772  the  number  of 
primary  schools  was  526,  and  rose  to  720  fifty  years  later. 
Between  1839  and  1868  new  schools  were  created  to  the 
number  of  1,422,  and  in  the  next  thirteen  years  965,  so  that 
in  1881  the  total  stood  at  4,472,  with  some  200,000  school- 
children. x  In  1900  the  schools  were  4,520 ;  at  the  end  of 
1906  there  were  5,226,  or  about  one  per  thousand  inhabitants. 
The  pity  was  that  they  were  for  the  most  part  in  hired  un- 
healthy buildings,  and  that  the  ill-paid  or  unpaid  schoolmasters 
taught  as  badly  as  they  were  paid.  Other  decrees  concerning 
education  were  more  practical,  as  that  of  1905  insisting  on 
physical  drill  in  the  schools,  or  that  of  1907  assigning  a 
hundred  contos  a  year  to  send  students  abroad.  As  to  the 

1  See  Dr.   Alves  dos  Santos  :    O  Ensino  primario  em  Portugal,  in 
Notas  sobre  Portugal. 


70  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

condition  of  the  school-buildings,  even  in  Lisbon,  says  a  Repub- 
lican paper  (A  Republica,  17th  April,  1914),  "  there  are  State 
schools  in  small  flats  in  the  midst  of  the  deafening  noise  of  the 
street,  without  light,  without  air,  without  hygiene,  without 
anything  to  attract  the  miserable  children  who  attend 
them." 

The  Republic  has  founded  a  Department  of  Public  Instruc- 
tion with  a  new  Minister  and  all  the  subordinate  officials. 

Dr.  Theophilo  Braga  at  the  time  gave  it  as 
of  ^Education     ^s  opinion  that  it  would  only  serve  to  provide 

posts  for  half-a-dozen  political  friends  of  the 
Government — anichar  meia  duzia  de  amigos  politicos.  The 
department  existed  in  1870  and  again  in  1890.  In  both 
cases  it  proved  expensive  and  unsatisfactory,  and  was  chiefly 
notable  for  giving  further  scope  to  empregomania  and  bureau- 
cracy, more  than  600  candidates  applying  for  posts  in  1890. l 
Snr.  Machado  notes  the  despesas  de  installafdo  of  the  new 
department  and  its  esperanpa  a  toda  a  gente,  i.e.,  it  spread 
hope  far  and  wide  not  of  an  improvement  in  education  but  of 
a  new  chance  of  becoming  a  Government  official. 2  It  is  true 
that  in  the  past  sums  contributed  by  local  administrative 
bodies  to  the  State  for  the  purpose  of  education,  sent  by  them 
to  the  Department  of  the  Interior  which  embraced  that  of 
Education,  were  not  infrequently  diverted  to  the  more  press- 
ing needs  of  the  Government  and  spent  on  something 
quite  unconnected  with  education.  In  future,  at  least, 
they  will  be  spent  on  maintaining  the  new  Department  of 
Education. 

Education  in  Portugal  is  of  three  kinds  :  primary,  secondary 
(in  lycees,  in  the  capital  of  each  district,  with  two  at  Oporto 

and   three  at   Lisbon),   and  the  University 
, '  ^ttfo6  lef      education  of  Coimbra.      Primary  education 

has  been  compulsory  for  the  last  generation, 
yet  four  and  a  half  million  out  of  six  million  inhabitants  cannot 

1  O  Ensino.     For  Bernardino  Machado.     Coimbra.   1898. 
«  Ibid.,  p.  242. 


Religion  and  Education  71 

write  or  read.  There  is  indeed  little  inducement  for  the 
peasants  to  send  their  children  to  school,  and  considerable 
inducement  to  keep  them  at  home  where  they  can  be  useful 
in  the  fields.  In  a  land  of  few  industries,  where  a  large 
majority  of  the  inhabitants  live  by  agriculture  and  fishing, 
there  is  but  little  need  of  book-learning,  nor  is  there  any 
universal  book  to  be  found  in  peasants'  houses,  as  the  Bible 
in  England.  Moreover,  the  peasants  distrust  education,  and 
distrust  it  the  more  the  more  it  is  mixed  up  with  politics 
and  questions  of  religion.  And  if  illiterates  are  disfranchised 
they  look  upon  that  rather  as  a  blessing  than  a  penalty, 
being  desirous  to  have  as  little  to  do  with  politics  as  may  be. 
Some  of  the  children  are  quite  keen  to  learn,  and  after  being 
kept  at  work  all  day  willingly  attend  night  classes  ;  but  there 
is  many  a  family  in  which  the  parents  not  only  do  not  encour- 
age their  children  to  learn  to  write  and  read,  but  deliberately 
forbid  it,  considering  that  the  drawbacks  of  education  exceed 
its  advantages.  The  Republic  is  credited  with  the  project  of 
providing  all  the  children  at  the  primary  schools  with  food 
and  clothes.  It  may  be  wondered  what  the  ill-paid  school- 
masters would  say  to  this — probably  they  would  go  on  strike 
until  they  were  given  clothes  and  food  too — but  the  children 
would  certainly  flock  to  school,  as  indeed  they  often  do  now, 
without  therefore  necessarily  learning  to  write  or  read. 
Para  que  serve  saber  ler  ?  What  use  is  it  ?  That  is  the  ques 
tion  which  the  peasant  children  learn  from  their  parents, 
who,  it  is  to  be  feared,  do  not  pay  all  the  respect  that  were  to 
be  desired  to  Lisbon's  crowding  politicians.  Perhaps,  too, 
in  their  native  good  sense,  they  consider  the  pale  and  sickly 
Lisbon  school  children  who  on  the  slightest  provocation  will 
rattle  you  off  a  fable  of  La  Fontaine  in  French  or  talk  of  the 
eclipses  or  the  equinox,  or  the  scientific  reason  for  the  colour 
of  sunsets,  or  other  high  matters  of  which  you  know  nothing 
and  which  to  them  are  mere  abstractions,  while  they  do  not 
know  the  difference  between  an  ash  and  an  oak.  Of  Portu- 
guese as  it  should  be  spoken,  of  Portuguese  literature, 


72  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

history  and  geography  they  are  more  ignorant.  Yet  before 
learning  French  or  English  they  should  surely  be  taught 
Portuguese — the  direct  and  forcible  Portuguese  of  the  early 
prose- writers. 

In  Portugal,  and  especially  in  the  towns,  the  children  are 

for  the  most  part  too  serious  and  precocious  and  sad.     This 

seems  to  be  encouraged  ;    they  are  willingly 

r£ffd  taken  to  funerals  or  marshalled  in  thousands 

Children. 

to  attend  political  demonstrations.  It  was 
even  proposed  recently,  on  the  occasion  of  the  death-sentence 
in  the  English  law-courts  of  a  Portuguese  who  had  murdered 
his  wife,  that  all  the  school-children,  pompously  lectured  on 
the  duties  of  humanity,  should  sign  a  petition  to  the  King  of 
England  on  his  behalf.  Thus  they  are  doctors  at  ten — 
docteurs  d  dix  [ans] — in  Montaigne's  phrase  and  die  of  old  age 
before  they  are  twenty. 

The  theoretical  character  of  the  education  provided  is 
especially  noticeable  in  the  lycees.  This  ensino  secundario 
is  described  by  a  master  in  July,  1913,  as 
consisting  of  "  immense  disconnected  pro- 
grammes." It  overloads  the  pupil's  mind, 
and  stuffs  him  with  abstractions.  Far  from  diminishing,  it 
increases  his  natural  vagueness  and  teaches  him  to  approach 
Portugal  by  way  of  China  or  Japan  and  mankind  through 
that  wicked  abstraction,  Humanity.  Freedom  and  Happi- 
ness, too,  fade  away  into  abstract  ideals  to  be  intrigued  and 
fought  for,  perhaps,  but  scarcely  to  be  enjoyed  in  common 
life.  Yet  it  is  as  true  now  as  when  Blake  wrote  the  words 
that  "  Those  who  want  Happiness  must  stoop  [not  soar]  to 
find  it :  it  is  a  flower  that  grows  in  every  vale."  It  is  as 
true  now,  in  spite  of  all  the  changed  conditions,  as  when 
Goethe  said  it,  that  "  If  a  man  has  enough  Freedom  to  live  a 
healthy  life  and  carry  on  his  work,  it  should  suffice  him,  and 
so  much  freedom  anyone  can  easily  attain."  The  number  of 
those  who  matriculated  at  the  lycees  throughout  the  country 
is  given  for  1907-8  as  6,947,  including  1,845  at  the  three 


Religion  and  Education  73 

Lisbon  lycees,  802  at  the  two  Oporto  lycees,  630  at  Coimbra, 
343  at  Braga,  310  at  Vizeu,  181  at  Evora. l 

The  University  of  Coimbra  has  the  advantage  of  attracting 
scholars  from  all  Portugal  and  of  thus  being  Portugal's  factory 
of  ideas  and  future  politicians.  The  practical 
obiect  of  the  undergraduates  is  to  become 
lawyers,  journalists,  politicians,  Government 
officials.  To  be  addressed  for  the  rest  of  their  lives  as  Senhor 
Doutor  (bacharel,  licenciado,  doutor)  appeals  to  their  vanity. 

The  result  is  that  all  these  liberal  professions  are  over- 
crowded and  so  unremunerative  that  it  is  necessary  for  one 
person  to  combine  two  or  three  professions ; 

Profession11  to  ^e'  ^or  mstance>  journalist,  advocate,  and 
leader  of  a  party,  or  journalist,  doctor,  and 
Minister  of  Finance.  The  number  of  applicants  for  every 
post  makes  it  possible,  moreover,  for  the  Government  to  leave 
the  officials  unpaid  :  others  will  be  only  too  willing  to  succeed 
them  should  they  rebel.  Every  Government  department, 
and  indeed  every  liberal  profession,  is  overstaffed.  "  In 
nearly  every  service  there  is  an  army  of  supernumeraries, 
many  of  whom  merely  receive  a  salary  without  doing  any 
work,  the  public  department  to  which  they  belong  not  even 
knowing  their  address.  Yet  when  a  post  becomes  vacant 
a  new  official  is  appointed,  the  supernumeraries  continuing 
as  before"  (0  Seculo,  7th  December,  1912).  The  first  years 
after  a  revolution  were  unlikely  to  bring  any  change  :  "  Re- 
publican Ministers  seem  to  have  considered  matters  of  admin- 
istration too  insignificant  to  notice.  .  .  .  New  expenses 
have  been  created,  the  action  of  the  public  departments 
extended  with  lamentable  rapidity,  and  no  check  has  been  set, 
as  was  urgently  required,  on  the  system  of  promotions  and 
the  growth  of  the  bureaucracy  "  (0  Seculo,  3rd  December, 
1912). 

The  Department  of  Public  Works  has  an  army  of  architects 

1  See  A    Instrucfdo  secundaria  em  Portugal.     Por  Dr.   Jos6  Maria 
Rodrigues,  in  Notas  sobre  Portugal. 


74  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

and  other  officials,  but  when  some  public  work  crops  up  a 
foreign  engineer  is  usually  called  in.  The  Department  resem- 
bles a  river  which  dries  up  before  reaching  the  region  that 
required  irrigation  or  that  army  sent  by  Philip  XII  of  France 
against  Spain,  which  had  dwindled  away  before  crossing  the 
Bidasoa.  In  the  same  way  it  was  complained  in  Portugal  a 
few  years  ago  that  there  were  "  too  many  canons  "  (0  Diario 
de  Noticias,  January,  1902).  In  the  same  way  it  is  com- 
plained to-day  that  there  are  too  many  officers.  The  sum 
of  1,535  contos,  over  a  sixth  of  the  whole  military  estimates, 
was  devoted  to  the  retired  list  in  the  Budget  of  1913-4.  The 
average  of  officers  is,  roughly,  one  to  nine  men.  "  Our  officers 
would  suffice  for  an  army  as  large  as  that  of  Germany  " 
(0  Diario  de  Noticias,  1 1th  February,  1902).  (In  the  Engineers 
there  are  145  officers  to  1,075  men,  in  the  Artillery  368  to 
2,610  men,  in  the  Cavalry  263  to  1,837,  in  the  Infantry  1,291 
to  12,289  men.)  (A  Republica,  26th  March,  1913).  It  has 
been  suggested  that  a  thousand  officers  would  be  sufficient, 
and  that  the  other  thousand  should  be  employed  as  mayors, 
a  course  also  proposed  in  1893.  And  in  the  same  way  there 
are  too  many  journalists,  too  many  politicians.  Some 
attempts  have  been  made  to  get  back  to  reality,  and  several 
technical  schools,  for  instance,  are  in  existence. 

The  same  lack  of  funds  which  fetters  the  schools  prevents 
the  libraries  of  Lisbon,  Oporto,  Coimbra,  Evora,  and  Braga 

from  being  kept  up  to  date.     But  for  these 
"  Francezismo. ' '  difficulties,  the  material  to  the  teacher's  hand 

is  promising  enough,  for  the  people,  if  it  can 
be  persuaded  that  it  is  to  its  advantage,  is  quick  and  eager  to 
learn.  The  attempts,  however,  to  dissociate  the  teaching 
from  all  the  traditions  of  Portugal  is  bound  to  be  a  failure. 
The  trouble  already  is  that  the  Portuguese  are  too  much 
inclined  to  be  cosmopolitan,  and  what  is  required  is  a  develop- 
ment of  that  part  of  the  Portuguese  people  still  untainted  with 
francezismo  along  strictly  national  lines.  The  lament  of  the 
novelist  Eca  de  Queiroz  is  well  known.  Accused  of  Gallicism 


Religion  and  Education  75 

in  his  work,  he  retorted  :  "  Scarcely  was  I  born  when  I  began 
to  breathe  a  French  atmosphere.  France  was  all  around  me." 
The  atmosphere  of  his  home  was  continued  in  French  text- 
books, at  Coimbra.  At  Lisbon,  '  *  in  theatres  and  shops  and 
cookery  there  was  nothing  left  of  Portugal :  there  was  nothing 
but  cheap  imitations  of  France."  And  especially  was  this 
true  in  politics  :  a  small  group  of  Frenchified  persons  ruled 
Portugal. *  In  the  last  half-century  this  Frenchification  has 
only  increased  in  Portugal.  "  Portugal  is  a  country  translated 
from  the  French  into  slang,"  said  E$a  de  Queiroz  on  the  same 
occasion,  in  an  essay  published  after  his  death.  Fortunately 
this  is  an  exaggeration,  and  a  symptom  of  the  disease  that  a 
Portuguese  should  thus  mistake  Coimbra  and  Lisbon  for 
Portugal.  "  Outside  Lisbon,"  he  declared,  "  there  is  neither 
intellectual  nor  social  life,"  and  this  may  be  deplorable  but 
it  is  of  good  augury  for  the  future.  Not  Portugal  but  Lisbon 
is  "  translated  from  the  French."  The  francezismo  has  not 
yet  extended  to  the  mass  of  the  people,  and  it  is  therefore  of 
the  utmost  importance  that  it  should  not  be  denationalized 
by  French  text-books,  French  laws,  French  customs.  At  the 
root  of  this  francezismo  lies  the  love  of  progress  which  has 
always  characterised  the  Portuguese,  but  the  truest  progress 
at  present  will  surely  consist  in  going  back  to  Portugal's  past, 
to  the  study  of  the  land  of  Portugal,  of  her  history,  as  rich 
as  that  of  any  other  country  in  striking  episodes  and  personal- 
ities, and  of  her  literature,  in  which  the  glories  of  that  history 
are  reflected. 

1  E?a  de  Queiroz  :     Ultimas  Paginas.     Porto,    1912. 


CHAPTER  V 

A   LAND   OF   FLOWERS 

IT  is  a  land  of  roses  flowering  in  December,  a  land  where,  in 
the  words  of  Garrett,  "  oranges  glow  in  the  orchards  and 
myrtle  blooms  on  the  moors  :  Onde  a  laran- 

1eira  cresce  ""  horta  e  °  matto  *  de  murta  " 
(Viajens  na  minha  terra,  1846).     The  foreigner 

who  spends  a  few  days  in  Portugal  and  sees  perhaps  Cintra 
and  Estoril  may  think  that  he  has  been  offered  a  few  show 
pieces,  yet  everywhere  in  this  wonderful  climate,  a  warmer 
South-west  of  Ireland,  given  water  and  shelter  either  from  the 
sea  or  from  the  subtle  Spanish  wind,  plants  thrive  and  grow 
as  swiftly  almost  as  the  fabled  bean-stalk,  and  flowers  cover  the 
ground  like  mushrooms  in  the  twinkling  of  a  fairy's  eye. 
A  desolate  strip  of  coast  near  Lisbon,  apparently  grey  and 
barren,  mere  sunburnt  and  spray-beaten  rock,  was  found  on 
closer  acquaintance  to  have  at  various  seasons  of  the  year, 
among  other  flowers,  whin  and  cistus,  yellow  jonquil,  white 
clustered  jonquil,  celandine,  crocus,  light  blue  dwarf  iris, 
large  dark-blue  iris,  mint  and  sea-lavender.  And  Cintra 
possesses  many  lovely  places  unknown  to  tourists,  the  whole 
region  deserving  not  the  stay  of  a  few  hours  but  a  quiet 
sojourn  in  one  of  its  houses  or  hotels.  The  slopes  of  the  Sena 
looking  towards  Cascaes,  though  rarely  visited,  are  scarcely  less 
beautiful  than  those  above  the  village  of  Cintra,  and  are 
crowded  with  all  kinds  of  trees  and  flowers.  You  may  walk 
across  from  Estoril.  The  path  goes  haphazard  through  the 
uncultivated  matto  and  then  a  road,  also  through  matto 
moorland,  passing  an  occasional  village  with  low  one-storeyed 
houses  and  lanes  between  walls  of  loose  stones  covered  with 
brambles,  sarsaparilla,  and  eglantine.  Here  a  woman  in  white 
blouse,  yellow  skirt,  and  plum-coloured  kerchief  is  at  work 

76 


A  Land  of  Flowers  77 

in  a  small  plot  of  vines  ;  there  a  boy  keeping  donkeys  and 
black-and-white  cows  is  dressed  all  in  light  faded  greys  and 
blues  like  one  of  the  wayside  thistles.  The  country  has  a 
look  of  Dartmoor — only  that  there  is  no  water,  no  patches  of 
vivid  treacherous  green — and  in  front  rise  the  twenty  odd  tors 
of  the  Serra. 

At  the  foot  of  the  Serra  is  Ribeira  de  Pena  Longa,  a  little 
tumble-down  village  in  olives  and  fruit-trees,  with  a  few 

clumps  of  mighty  planes.     The  village  street 
Ribeura  de^      js  mamjy  of  rock  with  loose  stones,  evidently 

a  torrent  in  winter,  and  the  forlorn  and 
poverty-stricken  look  of  the  whole  village  will  amaze  the 
Englishman  accustomed  to  see  the  flourishing  condition  of 
villages  near  or  on  some  great  estate  in  England.  There  are 
a  few  iron  balconies  with  tins  of  carnations,  and  grey  ruined 
walls  of  houses  with  olives  and  vines  growing  between  them 
seem  to  tell  of  a  more  prosperous  past,  perhaps  when  the 
neighbouring  Convent  of  Pena  Longa  was  wont  to  receive 
the  visits  of  King  Joao  III.  From  the  village  a  wide  gate 
leads  into  a  kind  of  mysterious  fairyland  :  out  of  the  glowing 
sunshine  the  road  passes  to  a  cool  shaded  avenue  of  arched 
trees,  where  the  songs  of  birds  are  heard  in  number  and  variety 
rare  in  Latin  countries.  A  rapid  stream  runs  by  the  road, 
and  on  this  side  and  on  that  are  a  multitude  of  fruit  trees 
and  great  myrtle  hedges,  twenty-feet  high  cactus  with  their 
large  deep-orange-coloured  flowers,  giant-leaved  bananas, 
vine-trellises,  groves  of  lemons,  plots  gay  with  garden  flowers. 
It  is  an  enchanted  country,  and  presently  you  will  come  to 
many  peacocks  and  the  low  rambling  house  of  the  Viscondes 
de  Pena  Longa.  At  the  other  end  the  estate  is  bounded  by 
the  serra  of  pines  and  eucalyptus.  A  little  further  on  a  small 
lake  is  fringed  with  great  pines,  and  here  is  a  marvellous 
solemn  silence  scarcely  broken  by  the  distant  cooing  of 
doves  or  the  sound  of  running  water.  Among  the  pines  grows 
bracken  and  heather,  myrtles  in  massed  snow-white  flower,  and 
thick  tufts  of  the  dark  purple  lavender.  Thence  with  some 


78  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

difficulty  you  may  climb  through  a  dense  wood  of  every 
variety  of  tree  and  labyrinthine  paths  up  to  the  palace  of  Pena. 
Fuchsias  and  bays  and  many  a  scented  shrub  and  flowering 
tree  will  recompense  you  for  the  pains  of  the  ascent,  and 
goodly  views  of  the  Tagus,  and  of  the  Sena  d'Ossa  in  Alemtejo. 
There  are  masses  of  periwinkles,  and  many  an  old  wall 
a-crumble  fretted  with  maidenhair  and  that  variety  of  daisy 
which  loves  old  mellow  stonework,  be  it  that  of  an  Oxford 
college  or  of  the  Basque  church  of  Urrugne. 

Or  you  may  attack  Cintra  by  way  of  Cascaes  and  Collares, 
since  the  accepted  approach  is  rarely  the  best  way  of  seeing 
a  place  for  the  first  time.     There  is  a  road  for 
part  °*  the  way  from  Cascaes  along  the  coast 


Coast 

with    sand-dunes,    and    hollows    of    scented 

cistus  and  many  a  delightful  cove  or  broader  sandy  bays, 
which  are  now  without  a  house,  but  might  at  the  whim  of 
fashion  —  absit  omen  —  become  favourite  and  crowded  watering- 
places.  Some  miles  from  Cascaes  the  Mountains  of  the  Moon 
descend  into  the  sea,  ending  in  the  famous  Cabo  da  Roca, 
the  "  Rock  of  Lisbon."  A  little  further  on  lies  Collares  in 
its  celebrated  vineyards,  and  taking  the  road  from  here  to 
Cintra  one  has  a  view  of  the  Serra  above  Cintra  in  a  rugged, 
almost  Alpine,  grandeur  of  grey  rocks  and  trees,  and  may 
understand  how  Fielding  could  call  it  a  high  mountain.  To 
the  right  the  last  slopes  are  covered  with  groves  of  arbutus 
trees,  which  hang  their  berries  in  clustered  lanterns  of  glowing 
yellow  and  orange,  white  and  green  and  red.  Thick  layers 
of  mist  hide  them  on  an  autumn  morning,  through  which  the 
sun  lights  up  the  ravines  in  weird  spears  and  shafts  of  light. 
To  the  left  extends  that  fertile  plain  which  produces  nearly 
all  the  fruits  of  the  earth  and  has  for  centuries  provided  Lis- 
bon's markets  with  their  most  treasured  wares.  Even  in 
summer  when  all  the  surrounding  country  is  in  a  cloudless 
blue  the  whole  Serra  of  Cintra  from  crown  to  base  is  often 
blotted  out  in  thick  white  mist  which  folds  over  peak  and 
ravine,  taking  the  shape  of  each  in  a  more  rounded  softness 


A  Land  of  Flowers  79 

of  snowfields.  Then  when  a  slight  wind  drives  it  off  in  a 
bank  along  the  horizon  seaward  the  Sena  appears  a  metallic 
blue,  as  if  it  had  been  poured  molten  into  the  mould  and  was 
just  hardening  to  its  definite  shape. 

The  variety  of  Cintra  is  but  a  sample  of  that  rich  profusion 
of  natural  beauties  in  the  most  diverse  kinds  throughout  the 
country.  With  an  area  little  over  a  quarter 
of  that  of  Great  Britain  and  about  three  times 
that  of  Belgium,  Portugal  presents  perhaps 
greater  variety  of  scenery  and  products  than  any  other  country 
of  Europe.  Rich  in  trees  and  fruits  (especially  figs  and 
oranges),  rice  (it  was  one  of  the  projects  of  the  last  Ministry 
of  the  Monarchy  to  encourage  rice-growing  in  Portugal),  wine, 
oil,  maize,  wheat,  rye,  cork,  salt  from  the  marinhas  of 
Aveiro  and  Algarve,  honey  from  Alemtejo,  Portugal  could 
also,  but  for  State  prohibitions,  produce  tobacco,  cotton,  and 
the  sugar-cane.  The  gardens  on  the  banks  of  the  Tagus, 
the  orchards  of  Setubal  and  Santarem,  the  fruit-gardens  round 
Caldas  da  Rainha  and  Alcobaga,  the  wide  corn-lands  on  the 
alluvial  lezirias  of  the  rivers  Tagus  and  Sado,  the  sub-tropical 
vegetation  of  the  southern  slope  of  the  Sena  de  Anabida  and 
of  Cintra  and  of  the  neighbourhood  of  Faro  and  Villa  Real 
de  S.  Antonio  in  Algarve,  prove  that  potentially  at  least 
Portugal  is  indeed  the  "  garden  of  Europe  planted  by  the  sea." 
The  salmon  in  the  transparent  rivers  of  Minho  are  less 
plentiful  than  they  were,  owing  to  the  poaching  and  wholesale 
destruction  dating  from  1498,  when  King 
Rivers  Manoel  deprived  the  nobility  of  hunting  and 
fishing  privileges  in  their  coutadas.  The  Vez, 
a  tributary  of  the  Lima,  is  said  to  be  still  a  good  trout-stream, 
and  some  trout  are  to  be  caught  in  the  Le$a.  In  the  Cavado, 
Mondego  and  Zezere  trout  are  now  rare.  Salmon  are  caught 
only  or  chiefly  in  the  river  Minho.  But  the  sea  along  Portu- 
gal's coasts  provides  her  with  an  unfailing  abundance  of  fish, 
and  the  fish-markets  of  Lisbon  and  Faro  are  renowned  for 
their  richness  and  variety  all  the  year  round.  To  the  south, 


80  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

especially,  sardines  are  plentiful  in  winter  as  well  as  in  summer. 
The  Portuguese  coast  is  in  great  part  rocky  and  dangerous, 
but  these  bare  inhospitable  cliffs  are  broken  by  little  sand 
coves  and  bays,  and  varied  with  immense  bare  or  pine-covered 
sand-dunes. 

The  climate  varies  considerably.     In  the  south  (Algarve) 
and    especially   in    Eastern    Alemtejo    (where   the   summer 

temperature  can  rise  to  120  Fahrenheit)  and 
Climate.         Traz  os  Montes  (where  the  climate  is  indeed 

rather  Spanish  than  Portuguese)  the  heat 
can  be  insufferable,  and  the  winter  cold  of  the  north-east  is 
severe.  But  in  the  centre,  and  especially  along  the  coast  of 
Estremadura,  the  climate  may  be  described  without  exaggera- 
tion as  the  best  in  Europe.  The  warm  winters  lead  one  to 
expect  tropical  summers,  but  this  expectation  is  not  fulfilled, 
and  the  sea  and  the  north  summer  wind  here  moderate  the 
heat  which  can  be  so  oppressive  in  the  interior.  The  following 
statistics  from  an  article  by  Snr.  Antonio  Arroyo,  in  Notas 
sobre  Portugal,  give  the  average  temperatures  during  the 
years  1856-1900  at  (1)  Lisbon,  (2)  Biarritz,  (3)  Nice— 

Yearly  Winter 

Average.  Average.  Spring.  Summer.  Autumn. 

(1)  15-63  10-63  14-38                  20'69  16-69 

(2)  13-80  779  12-39                  19'67  15'25 

(3)  14-75  7-91  13-27                  21-94  15'79 

Thus,  while  the  Lisbon  winters  are  nearly  three  degrees  warmer, 
the  summers  are  barely  one  degree  warmer.  The  figures  are 
Centigrade.  To  convert  into  Fahrenheit  divide  by  five, 
multiply  by  9,  and  add  32.  A  scientific  book  has  recently 
been  published  on  the  climate  round  Lisbon  :  The  Climate  of 
Lisbon  and  of  the  two  health  resorts  in  its  immediate  neighbour- 
hood, Mont'  Estoril,  on  the  Riviera  of  Portugal,  and  Cintra. 
By  Dr.  A.  G.  Delgado.  Lisbon,  1914. 

At  Estoril  a  thermal  station,  with  casino,  gardens,  golf- 
links,  etc.,  is  in  process  of  construction.  The  Estoril  climate 
even  excels  that  of  Lisbon,  being  slightly  warmer  in  winter 


A  Land  of  Flowers  81 

and  cooler  in  summer.      It  is  a  little  surprising  that  more 
foreigners  do  not  settle  temporarily  or  permanently  in  this 

region,  which  is  so  easy  of  access  and  has  so 
Estoril.         many  advantages.  The  considerable  number  of 

Englishmen  now  living  in  Portugal  are  with  few 
exceptions  engaged  in  business.  Possibly  foreigners  are  afraid 
of  revolutions,  but  revolutions  in  Portugal  do  not  as  a  rule 
affect  the  foreigner  in  the  slightest  degree.  Gambling,  on  a 
large  scale,  and  great  luxury,  it  is  true,  he  will  not  find,  but 
cleanliness  and  ordinary  comfort  are  to  be  had  at  the  existing 
hotels,  and  any  other  deficiencies  are  amply  compensated  for 
by  the  excellent  climate  and  the  charms  and  interest  of  the 
surrounding  country,  and  by  the  courtesy  and  helpfulness  of 
its  inhabitants.  It  is  not  often  that  travellers  can  live  in  a 
comfortable  hotel,  have  English  newspapers,  English  books 
(from  the  Lisbon  International  Library),  English  tinned  foods 
and  tobacco,  all  the  delights  and  none  of  the  drawbacks  of 
a  southern  climate,  and  at  the  same  time  such  scenery  to  their 
hand  as  that  of  Cintra,  and  such  architecture  as  is  to  be  had 
on  all  sides  in  a  day's  motor  drive,  besides  lawn-tennis  and 
golf,  and  the  historical  associations  of  the  Peninsular  War. 

Rarely  does  the  country  appear  to  be  fully  developed,  yet 
even  so  it  produces  such  a  wealth  of  fruits  and  flowers  that 

evidently  with  greater  care,  better  methods, 

Backwardness    an(j  a  more  widely  extended  system  of  irriga- 

Country.        tion,  it  might  be  a  perfect  paradise.     It  would 

be  unfair  to  attribute  the  neglect  and  back- 
wardness and  misery  prevailing  throughout  this  lovely  country 
entirely  to  the  character  of  the  inhabitants.  The  accumulated 
misfortunes  of  their  history  for  the  last  three  centuries  would 
be  enough  to  explain  it ;  but  they  certainly  have  been  inclined 
to  neglect  their  own  native  soil  for  alien  enterprises,  and  are 
only  now  beginning  to  realise  that  the  future  of  Portugal  lies 
in  Portugal.  In  time,  no  doubt,  Algarve,  Estremadura,  and 
Minho  will  be  fringed  with  prosperous  watering-places  and 
with  busy  seaports,  to  which  railways  from  the  interior  will 

6— (2404) 


82  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

carry  many  minerals,  wood  from  existing  forests  and  from 
land  still  awaiting  afforestation,  as  well  as  the  most  varied 
vegetables,  fruits  and  flowers.  (Foreign  countries  will  find 
it  profitable  also  to  import  on  a  large  scale  earthenware 
manufactures,  azulejos,  and  the  majolica  wares  of  Cnldas  da 
Rainha.)  Irrigation  will  have  transformed  much  matto 
country  into  flourishing  gardens  and  orchards,  and  Alemtejo 
will  become  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name  the  granary  of  Portugal. 
It  is  quite  possible  for  Portugal  to  become  one  continuous 
garden  city,  through  which  flawless  roads  will  whirl  the  traveller 
in  a  few  hours  from  Valencia  to  Faro,  and  from  Elvas  to  Cintra. 
This  is  the  object  at  which  those  who  care  more  for  Portugal 
than  for  party  politics  must  aim. 

But  the  charm  will  have  departed,  and  present-day  travellers 

may  congratulate  themselves  that  the  change  is  not  in  their 

day.     For  now  parts  of  the  country  are  not 

Tlport!jinfl in  to  be  seen  wit*1011*  considerable  effort,  and 
have  the  added  fascination  of  things  difficult 
of  attainment.  The  Portuguese  rarely  journey  for  enjoyment 
south  of  the  Tagus,  to  the  land  alemtejo,  yet  both  the  Alemtejo 
and  Algarve  are  delightful  districts,  and  fully  repay  any 
little  discomforts  which  a  visit  to  them  may  entail,  and  the 
impression  left  is  of  a  great  region  of  wild  flowers  and  garden 
fruits  lying  in  a  semi-tropical  sunshine,  round  a  few  villages 
and  ancient  towns.  Indeed,  those  who  have  seen  not  only 
Minho  and  the  massed  rhododendrons  in  flower  on  the  Serra 
do  Gerez,  and  the  smooth  mountains  of  the  Serra  da  Estrella, 
apparently  bare  and  desolate,  covered  with  cistus,  lavender, 
and  a  thousand  other  varieties  of  wild  flowers,  but  also  the 
rare  flowers  and  rhododendrons  of  the  Serra  de  Monchique  in 
Algarve,  and  the  giant  patchwork  of  all  kinds  and  colours  of 
flowers  which  make  beautiful  the  pastures  and  wastelands  of 
Alemtejo,  from  the  tall  branching  asphodels,  like  chandeliers 
of  chalcedony,  to  the  serried  fields  of  thistle  or  hawksweed, 
will  readily  extend  to  the  whole  of  Portugal  the  name  of 
"  Switzerland  of  Spain/'  which  has  been  bestowed  on  Galicia. 


A  Land  of  Flowers  83 

(The  word  "  Spain/'  meaning  the  whole  Peninsula,  once 
common,  is  still  in  use  occasionally,  as  in  the  title  of  the 
Archbishop  of  Braga,  who  is  "  Primate  of  the  Spains.") 
The  roads  of  Portugal  are  a  delight  by  reason  of  their  wayside 
springs  and  streams  and  groves,  and  the  hedges  which  in 
height  and  thickness  rival  those  of  Devonshire,  and  have  all 
the  luxuriant  growth  of  the  south.  Or,  when  the  road  cuts 
through  matto,  thick  masses  of  cistus  often  invade  it  on  either 
side,  and  the  air  is  heavy  with  its  scent.  (Both  in  leaf  and 
scent  it  strongly  resembles  escalonia.)  A  walking  tour  is  more 
often  a  hardship  than  a  pleasure,  or  rather  its  pleasure  is  of 
recollections,  especially  where,  as  in  Spain,  inns  are  rare  and 
food  in  an  inn  rarer.  But  Portugal,  that  is  in  the  northern 
provinces — for  the  sun  tyrannises  south  of  the  Tagus  and 
shade  is  rarer — is  an  ideal  country  for  such  a  tour. 

The  witty  Nicolaus  Clenardus,  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
after  complaining  that  at  an  inn  in  Spain  his  horses  had  well 

fasted,  and  he  himself  had  had  but  half  an 
Inns.  ounce  of  meat  in  an  olla,  and  departed  as  he 

came,  latrante  stomacho,  admitted  that  in 
Portugal  things  were  better  :  omnia  mitescere  visa  sunt.  It  is 
true  that  the  author  of  the  Arte  de  Furtar,  writing  a  few 
generations  later,  gives  us  a  melancholy  initiation  into  the 
ways  of  the  inn-hostess  of  Beja.  "  I  saw  her,"  he  says,  "  buy 
two  cabbages  for  a  halfpenny.  She  cast  them  into  a  caldron 
with  two  large  pimentos  well  crushed  and  another  halfpenny- 
worth of  oil.  She  boiled  them  twice,  and  without  ever 
rising  from  her  stool,  she  made  thirty  plates  full  at  a  penny 
each,  with  which  she  feasted  guests  and  carters  alike,  and  they 
professed  themselves  satisfied."  There  is  something  sinister 
about  this  stationary  woman.  Sedet  aeternumque  sedebit. 
Probably  if  an  old  shoe  had  been  to  hand,  instead  of  the 
pimentoes,  in  it  would  have  gone.  But,  however  far  afield  the 
twentieth  century  traveller  wanders,  Heaven  will  probably 
keep  him  from  such  a  hostess  in  Portugal — in  Spain  she  is 
still  common — and  everywhere  he  will  find  great  willingness 


84  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

to  attend  to  his  requirements,  such  readiness  in  fact  that 
he  will  probably  expect  to  be  asked  for  several  shillings 
and  be  surprised  to  be  charged  only  in  vintens.  Of  course, 
in  a  sense  the  more  poorly  he  goes  clad  the  better  he  will  fare 
in  the  out-of-the-way  parts,  the  poor  reserving  a  wealth  of 
kindliness  and  ready  service  exclusively  for  the  poor.  The 
hospedarias  are  bare  and  clean,  the  estalagens  are  not  much  less 
comfortable  than  the  hospedarias,  and  sometimes  as  clean. 
The  estalagem  is  where  any  passing  wayfarer — carriers, 
almocreves,  etc.,  put  up  ;  the  hospedarias  are  rather  for  more 
permanent  guests,  officers  quartered  in  the  town,  and  so  on. 
But  even  the  wayside  venda,  perhaps  consisting  of  a  single 
room,  roofed  over  with  branches  and  with  the  trodden  ground 
for  floor,  will  be  able  to  provide  a  meal  of  eggs,  coffee,  and 
bread. 

The  water  difficulty  is  not  present  as  in  Spain.     Springs  and 
rivulets  of  most  excellent  transparent  water,  flowing  cleanly 
over  granite,  are  ever  to  the  hand  of  the 

thirsty'  icY  cold  even  in  the  d°g  daYs>  and  the 
great  flowered  hedges  will  yield  him  a  plot  of 

shade  for  a  rest  even  if  he  does  not  hit  on  some  pleasant 
grove  of  trees  and  flowers.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  Sociedade 
de  Propaganda  de  Portugal,  which  watches  over  the  interests 
of  the  more  respectable  tourist,  will  not  forget  to  attend  to 
the  needs  of  the  humble  pedestrian,  and  indeed  of  the  motorist, 
by  seeing  to  it  that  sign-posts  and  milestones  be  set  on  all  the 
roads.  These  can  be  of  such  a  character  as  not  in  the  least 
to  obtrude  upon  the  rustic  character  of  these  delightful  roads. 
In  Portugal  the  pedestrian  has  the  great  advantage  over  the 
motorist  that  he  is  able  to  digest  what  he  sees,  and  even  he 
will  have  to  advance  in  very  leisurely  fashion  in  order  to  do 
that.  It  is  the  charm  of  Alcoba9a  and  Batalha — those  two 
marvellous  buildings — that  they  have  no  railway.  You  may 
drive  or  walk,  but  even  if  you  walk  it  is  but  a  few  miles  from 
the  one  to  the  other,  through  a  tempting  country  of  dense 
pinewoods  and  heather,  with  the  village  of  Aljubarrota  and 


A  Land  of  Flowers  85 

the  famous  battlefield  thrown  in.     To  see  in  one  day  the 

multifarious  splendours  of  Batalha  and  Alcobaca,   not  to 

speak  of  Leiria,  is  more  than  is  good  for  the  ordinary  person. 

Leiria  is  little  more  than  a  village,  a  delightful  village  set 

in  trees  and  flowers,  orchards  and  vineyards,  with  the  sound 

of  the  rushing  river  Lis  ever  present.     On 

Leiria.          a  sheer   hill   above   it   stands   crumbling   in 

flowers  the  ruins  of  King  DimV  Castle. 
The  village  of  Luso,  too,  beneath  Bussaco,  is  embedded  in 
flowers  and  creepers,  and  Bussaco  itself,  of  course,  consists 
of  nothing  but  the  remnants  of  a  convent  and 

a  sin&le  modern  h6tel>  a11  the  rest  being  a  vast 
enclosure     of    trees,     creepers,     brushwood, 
shrubs  and  ferns  and  flowers  probably  unequalled  in  Europe. 
And  countless  villages  throughout  Portugal  are  literally 
set  in  and  scented  with  flowers.     A  writer  of  the  seventeenth 
century  describes  one  of  them  thus  :   "  Each 
Villages.         house    has    its   garden    with    various    trees, 
oranges,   and   lemons,   which   fill   the  whole 
town  with  the  sweetest  scent  and  with  their  gay  flowers/'1 
For  fuel  all  kinds  of  scented  brushwood  are  burnt — cistus, 
rosemary,  myrtle — the  thin  blue  smoke  of  which  is  a  sweet 
incense. 

Even  on  the  rocky  coast,  at  Cascaes  near  Lisbon,  many 
flowers  are  to  be  found.  Where  there  is  any  moisture  peri 
winkles  star  the  ground,  and  in  the  strip 
immediately  along  the  coast  burnt  by  the 
winter  spray,  flower  dwarf  irises  in  crowds. 
They  know  that  the  sea-winds  blow  chiefly  in  winter,  and 
cunningly  wait  till  they  have  little  to  fear  from  the  spray, 
springing  into  flower  at  the  end  of  April  or  beginning  of  May. 
It  is,  however,  the  land  wind  (the  nortadas  that  begin  slightly 
in  spring  and  prevail  in  July  and  August)  which  blackens 
and  bruises  creepers  and  flowers.  This  wind  has  something 
of  the  subtle  winds  of  Spain,  whence  it  comes,  and  is  disliked 
1  Miscellanea  de  Miguel  Leitao  de  Andrade,  2nd  ed.  Lisbon,  1867. 


86  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

by  some  persons,  but  by  those  who  shun  intense  heat  it  is 
welcomed  in  the  summer  months.  It  brings  cloudless  skies 
without  great  heat.  It  transforms  all  things  to  a  clearer 
outline  and  darkens  the  sea  to  a  deep  sapphire,  flecked  with 
white  horses.  Under  the  cliffs  the  water  in  such  weather — 
which  may  continue  for  ten  days  or  a  fortnight — is  calm 
and  transparent,  and  the  sunshine  ripples  and  plays  in  wrinkles 
of  amber  on  the  deep-sunken  rocks,  transmuted  for  the  time 
into  great  slabs  of  beryl,  jasper  and  emerald.  In  summer 
a  whole  population  lives  for  weeks  together  fishing  in  these 
waters.  Almost  everything  that  will  float  is  put  into  requi- 
sition, and  the  queerest  craft  make  their  appearance,  long 
crescent-shaped  boats  that  seem  scarcely  to  touch  the  water, 
old  boats  with  a  single  square  black  or  tawny  sail,  boats  with 
sails  cherry-red,  white,  and  brown. 

At  Estoril,  which  almost  joins  Cascaes,  live  many  of  the 
foreigners  settled  in  Lisbon,  and  here  the  houses,  mostly  well 
sheltered  by  a  pine-covered  hill,  have  gardens 
^Flowers'*  brimming  with  flowers,  winter  and  summer. 
Still  more  sheltered  is  Cintra,  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Serra,  where  the  work  of  the  gardener  consists 
rather  in  cutting  away  than  in  encouraging  growth.  The 
road  from  Cintra  to  Collares  is  hemmed  by  wonderful  gar- 
dens and  orchards,  although  there  is  still  plenty  of  ground 
waiting  to  be  enclosed  and  turned  into  a  little  Monserrate. 
Some  of  these  orchards  are  half  neglected,  and  one  may  wander 
gradually  from  woodland  into  weedy  garden  paths  where 
orange  trees,  crowded  with  glowing  fruit,  grow  apparently 
at  random.  (And  the  oranges  of  Cintra  vie  with  those  of 
Setubal,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Sado.)  It  is  from  Collares  in 
great  part  that  Lisbon  fills  its  markets  daily  with  an  abundance 
of  fruits  and  flowers.  "  He  who  goes  to  the  Church  of  the 
Misericordia  will  find  daily  from  fifteen  to  twenty  girls  selling 
flowers,  loose  or  in  wreaths  and  bunches." 1  The  author,  Frey 
Nicolas  d'Oliveyra,  adds  that  on  the  4th  of  August,  1620,  for 

1  Livro  das  Grandezas  de  Lisboa.     1620. 


A  Land  of  Flowers  87 

one  fete  in  four  Lisbon  churches  three  thousand  wreaths  and 
two  thousand  bunches  of  flowers  were  used.  If  less  flowers 
now  adorn  Lisbon's  churches  their  number  has  not  diminished, 
and  exportation  of  flowers  and  fruits  on  a  vast  scale  only 
awaits  quicker  means  of  transport  and  intelligent  markets  in 
foreign  countries.  For  the  flowers  fill  the  great  uncultivated 
tracts  of  the  country  with  scent  and  colour,  and  wherever  some 
minor  Beckford  has  enclosed  a  plot  of  ground  he  is  rewarded 
by  a  true  garden  of  Eden. 


CHAPTER   VI 

CONVENTS  AND  PALACES 

IN  palaces  and  convents,  churches,  castles,  towers,  crumbling 
Roman  ruins,  fine  country  houses,  Portugal  is  as  rich  as  any 

land.  The  chief  attraction  of  the  Palacio  das 
Belem.  Necessidades  at  Lisbon  is  its  splendid  grounds, 

now  open  to  the  public.  From  the  Tagus 
the  most  imposing  building  is  the  great  mass  of  the  Church  of 
S.  Vicente,  which  the  morbid  visit  to  see  the  Princes  and 
Kings  of  Portugal  in  their  glass-covered  coffins.  Of  Lisbon's 
ancient  buildings  that  which  most  forcibly  appeals  to  eye  and 
imagination  is  the  ruined  Carmo,  now  serving  as  an  archaeo- 
logical museum,  standing  so  nobly  over  the  city  and  carrying 
the  mind  back  to  the  days  of  Nun'  Alvares  Pereira,  one  of  the 
greatest  figures  of  all  time.  But  the  finest  building  of  Lisbon 
— since  a  street  now  connects  with  the  capital  what  was  for- 
merly a  separate  village,  is  the  Church  and  Convent  of  Belem. 
The  village  still,  however,  maintains  a  certain  individuality, 
with  its  wide  common  surrounded  by  low  pink-washed  houses 
and  primitive  arcades,  and  its  statue  of  Affonso  d'Albuquerque 
perched,  like  St.  Simeon  Stylites,  on  a  high  pillar,  and  looking 
out  across  the  Tagus  to  the  Atlantic,  its  peculiar  square 
Tower  of  Belem  jutting  out  into  the  river  and,  above  all,  the 
church  of  the  Convent,  which  in  its  perfect  proportions  and 
ancient  grey  colouring  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  the 
world's  buildings.  To  realise  its  beauty,  the  church  must 
not  be  seen  too  near,  since  the  famous  doorway  will  seem  to 
many  excessively  ornamented  in  its  wealth  of  detail.  But 
from  the  river  seen  in  spring  above  the  flowering  Judas  trees, 
or  above  the  yellowing  leaves  in  autumn,  it  might  be  some 
old  Oxford  college.  And  the  interior  is  worthy  of  such  beauty, 
in  spite  of  the  Manoeline  style,  which  does  its  best  to  spoil 
the  noble  Gothic,  in  relation  to  which  it  stands  as  ivy  to  the 


Convents  and  Palaces  89 

trunk  of  a  tree.  The  pillars  go  straight  up  without  a  break 
to  a  height  of  nearly  a  hundred  feet,  and  about  the  whole 
place  is  a  sense  of  spaciousness  and  fine  proportion  which  the 
Manoeline  decoration  cannot  mar.  In  little  chapels  round  the 
church  are  the  tombs  of  King  Manoel  I  (who  built  the  Convent 
to  celebrate  the  voyage  of  Vasco  da  Gama,  the  buildings  thus 
corresponding  in  stone  to  the  Lusiads  of  Camoes  :  ceci  n'a 
pas  tue  cela)  ;  of  his  son  King  Joao  III,  variously  judged  by 
historians  as  a  saint  or  a  simpleton  (it  is  not  for  nothing  that 
the  Spanish  word  for  "  blessed,"  bendito,  means  also  a  fool : 
cf.  the  English  "  silly,"  derived  from  the  German  selig)  ;  of 
Camoes  and  of  Vasco  da  Gama  (the  tomb  is  his,  but  there  was 
a  mistake  in  the  bones  when  they  were  transferred  thither 
from  Vidigueira  in  1880). 

From  Lisbon  to  Cintra  is  but  a  step,  and  it  is  equally 
pleasant  to  walk  or  drive  or  ride,  but  the  train  will  take  you 

there    in    little    over    half-an-hour.     What 
Cintra.          strikes  everyone  on  arriving  at  the  village  is 

the  curious  prominence  of  the  two  uncouth 
gigantic  chimneys  of  the  palace.  This  palace  is  now  an 
archaeological  museum,  but  the  interest  still  centres  in  the 
legends  and  history  and  natural  beauty  of  its  walls,  for  the 
most  part  lined  with  fine  old  azulejos.  The  magpies  of  the 
ceiling  in  the  Sala  das  Pegas  have  not  been  whitewashed  away, 
the  Sala  dos  Cisnes  still  keeps  its  swans,  and  the  coats  of  arms 
cover  the  walls  of  the  Sala  dos  Cervos,  a  stag  in  each  case 
supporting  the  arms  of  the  old  families  of  Portugal — 

Pois  com  esforgos  e  leaes 
Servi£os  foram  ganhados  : 
Coin  estes  e  outros  taes 
Devem  de  ser  conservados. 


(Loyal  services  and  deeds 
Were  yours  to  gain  them  : 
By  such  services  and  deeds 
Shall  you  maintain  them.) 


90  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

Cf.  Marvell's 

The  same  arts  that  did  gain 
A  power  must  it  maintain. 

A  path  or  no  path  leads  to  the  grey  ruined  walls  of  the  Castello 
dos  Mouros  above  the  village.  Here  legend  would  have  it 
that  the  hapless  poet,  Bernardim  Ribeiro,  came  to  sigh  for 
his  royal  mistress,  King  Manoel  I's  daughter,  who,  however, 
probably  left  Lisbon  and  Cintra  for  Savoy  some  weeks  before 
Ribeiro  came  to  Lisbon  from  Alemtejo. 

Far  above  on  its  peak,  conspicuous  far  out  to  sea  on  both 
sides  of  the  Serra,  but  in  shape  so  different,  as  seen  from 

Mafra  or  Collares  and  from  the  Estoril  side, 
Capena  da      that  one  scarcelY  realises  that  it  is  the  same 

building,  stands  the  Castello  da  Pena,  over 
1,700  feet  above  sea-level.  Prince  Ferdinand  of  Saxe- 
Coburg,  husband  of  Queen  Maria  II  of  Portugal,  bought  the 
place  towards  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  for  a  few 
hundred  pounds.  It  was  then  merely  a  ruin  of  the  convent 
built  there  by  King  Manoel  I.  The  surrounding  woods  and 
gardens  and  the  magnificent  views  from  every  window  make 
this  palace  one  of  the  most  wonderful  houses  in  Europe, 
wonderful,  too,  in  the  wealth  of  designs  on  pillar  and  archway 
(in  imitation  of  the  style  Manoeline) ,  and  in  many  incidental 
beauties,  especially  the  altar  of  alabaster  and  grey  marble 
in  the  chapel.  Below,  set  in  luxuriant  growth  of  azaleas  and 
camellias,  are  the  flower-gardens  and  the  Fonte  dos  Passarinhos 
or  das  Andorinhas,  with  its  white  marble  swallows  drinking. 
In  the  palace  private  photographs  and  weapons  belonging  to 
the  Portuguese  Royal  Family  still  hang  from  the  walls,  and 
the  tables  are  covered  with  magazines  and  newspapers,  dated 
October,  1910,  precisely  as  on  that  autumn  day  on  which 
Queen  Amelie  heard  here  the  faint  booming  of  the  guns 
from  Lisbon  in  revolution.  Those  who  are  not  content  with 
the  exquisite  partial  view  from  the  terrace  of  the  dining-room 
climb  by  a  little  outer  staircase  to  the  wind-swept  cupola. 


Convents  and  Palaces  91 

Winter  and  summer  every  wind  that  blows  seems  to  redouble 
its  force  just  here.  For  the  sake  of  the  view  a  north-east 
wind  is  to  be  preferred,  but  the  view  is  always  magnificent 
and  extensive,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  is  bounded  on  two 
sides  by  the  Atlantic.  White  sands  mark  the  entrance  of  the 
Tagus  with  the  Serra  d'Ossa  and  Alemtejo  beyond,  and  the 
long  headland  which  begins  in  beautiful  sand-dunes — beau- 
tiful in  certain  lights  and  days — and  runs  out  to  Cape  Espichel. 
On  afternoons  of  a  clear  land  wind  the  cape  is  lit  up  by  the 
sun  in  every  crevice  of  its  sheer  white  cliffs  and  stands  out 
like  an  island  in  mid-ocean — with  a  strong  resemblance  to  the 
southern  cliffs  of  England.  Immediately  beneath  the  palace 
walls  are  the  famous  woods  of  the  grounds  down  the  sides  of 
the  Serra.  The  Serra  itself  extends  on  one  side  to  the  small 
villages  of  Charneca  (Moor)  and  Areias  (Sands),  and  on  the 
other  to  Collares  and  the  Praia  das  Masas  (Shore  of  Apples). 
All  this  country  is  really  a  promontory  some  twenty  miles 
across,  between  the  Atlantic  and  the  vast  estuary  of  the  Tagus. 
To  the  east  the  view  includes  such  fragments  of  Lisbon  as 
are  not  concealed  by  hills,  while  on  the  north  a  great  black 
patch  in  the  level  plain  is  the  Convent  of  Mafra. 

The  Convent  of  Mafra  is  eighteenth  century,  and  would 
be  uninteresting  were  it  not  for  its  sheer  hugeness,  which 

seems  to  defy  you  to  criticise.     It  bullies  you 
Mafra.          into  accepting  its  ugliness,  and  stuns  you  with 

figures.  Thus,  you  have  scarcely  recovered 
from  the  gigantic  proportions  of  its  towers  and  the  steps 
hundreds  of  feet  long  in  front  of  them  when  you  are  told 
that  it  was  nearly  thirty  years  a-building,  and  employed  at 
times  nearly  50,000  builders,  that  the  tale  of  its  doors  is 
5,200,  of  its  windows  2,500.  If  you  are  incredulous,  count 
them.  The  whole  building  measures  some  275  by  240  yards, 
nearly  a  sixth  of  a  mile  long.  The  church  is  a  glory  of  pink 
and  white  marble,  magnificent  but  not  beautiful.  Yet  it  is 
worth  going  through  Mafra  to  see  the  front  of  Mafra's  Convent, 
even  if  one  does  not  stop  to  enter  the  building.  The  railway 


92  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

station  is  ten  kilometres  from  the  village,  so  that  most  people 
drive  there,  but  if  anyone  likes  to  take  train  to  Mafra's  station, 
walk  thence  to  Mafra,  and  then  straight  across  to  Cintra,  he 
will  be  rewarded  by  a  splendid  view  of  the  Serra  to  shorten  his 
way.  Seen  from  here,  it  is  a  gigantic  wing  folded  over  the 
village  of  Cintra,  grey  crags  and  dark  wooded  ravines,  with 
the  Cruz  Alta,  the  Castle  of  Pena,  and  the  Castle  of  the  Moors 
to  mark  the  heights.  Mafra  is  about  thirty-five  kilometres 
north-west  of  Lisbon,  and  another  hundred  kilometres 
intervene  between  Mafra  and  Vallado — no  unpleasant  three 
days'  walk.  Vallado  is  at  about  equal  distance  from  Nazareth 
and  the  sea  on  one  side  and  Alcobasa  on  the  other. 

To  whatever  pains  the  traveller  may  be  put  before  reaching 
Alcoba£a  he  will  think  nothing  thereof  when  he  sees  the 

interior  of  this  old  Cistercian  abbey,  and  to 
Alcobasa.        many  the  very  remoteness  of  Alcobac.a  and 

Batalha,  lying  fortunately  miles  from  any 
railway  station,  is  no  mean  attraction.  This  Convent,  like 
that  of  Mafra,  is  now  used  partly  as  barracks  and  partly  as 
prison — the  mixed  company  of  prisoners  may  be  seen  white 
and  hungry,  stretching  out  their  hands  through  the  bars  to 
the  village  street.  But,  whereas  Mafra  as  a  barracks  seems 
to  be  usefully  fulfilling  its  proper  purpose,  to  quarter  a  regiment 
in  Alcoba^a's  monastery  savours  of  desecration.  However,  the 
principal  cloisters,  the  Cloisters  of  Dom  Diniz,  are  still  and 
peaceful,  surrounding  with  their  beautiful  arches  plots  gay 
with  flowers,  as  when  the  monks  sought  or  sheltered  from  the 
sun  here  and  were  buried  beneath  the  flagstones.  Here  is 
an  old  well  with  its  ferns  and  crumbling  Gothic  architecture, 
and  the  whole  place  may  give  many  an  intense  desire  to  have 
the  good  monks  back  there  to  enjoy  it  instead  of  half-a-dozen 
flurried  and  unappreciative  tourists.  The  climate  of  Portugal 
makes  it  an  ideal  country  for  all  whose  sole  vocation  is  endless 
contemplation,  and  where  better  fulfil  that  vocation  than  in 
these  lovely  convents  !  In  winter  the  building  provides  a 
hundred  corners  of  hot  sun,  and  in  hot  weather  the  cold  stone 


V      .  v  ::•':%.« 


Convents  and  Palaces  93 

and  the  sound  of  running  water  recall  some  Seville  patio. 
The  guide-books  for  every  two  or  three  pages  given  to  Batalha, 
will  devote  but  one  to  Alcobasa.  Yet  for  those  who  care  for 
pure  Gothic  the  latter  is  perhaps  even  the  more  attractive  of 
the  two.  The  narrow  aisles,  plain  majestic  pillars,  and  nobly 
sculptured  capitals,  make  of  its  early  Gothic  church  a  severe 
and  lovely  building,  and  historically,  of  course,  the  interest 
of  the  place  is  very  great.  In  the  Sala  dos  Reis  are  statues  of 
the  early  kings  of  Portugal,  and  azulejo  scenes  of  the  events 
which  led  to  the  foundation  of  the  convent.  As  is  well  known, 
it  was  Affonso  Henriques  (that  is,  son  of  Count  Henry  of 
Burgundy),  who  began  it,  owing  to  an  oath  he  had  made  to 
build  a  convent  in  the  event  of  taking  Santarem  from  the 
Moors.  The  capture  of  Santarem  (1147  A.D.)  was  but  one  of 
the  many  successes  of  that  great  warrior  king,  the  first  king 
and  the  real  founder  of  Portugal  as  a  separate  nation.  Com- 
pared with  so  early  a  date,  the  giant  caldron  taken  from 
the  Spaniards  after  the  battle  of  Aljubarrota  (1385)  is  almost 
modern.  It  also  stands  in  the  Sala  dos  Reis,  and  it  is  well 
that  one  memorial  of  the  deeds  of  the  great  Constable  should 
be  here,  for  the  hero  of  Aljubarrota,  Nun'  Alvares,  and  Affonso 
I  had  much  in  common.  Both  won  many  victories,  and 
founded  churches  and  convents,  and  both  were  inspired  by  a 
passionate  love  of  the  independence  of  their  country.  If 
Nun'  Alvares  was  the  more  chivalrous  of  the  two  this  must  be 
attributed  to  the  intervening  centuries.  But  it  is  not  of 
Affonso  Henriques  that  most  visitors  think  when  they  are  at 
Alcobaca,  but  of  a  time  one  generation  earlier  than  that  of 
Nun'  Alvares,  who  was  but  seven  when  King  Pedro  I  (1357-67) 
died. 

In  one  of  the  chapels  of  Alcoba9a's  church  are  the  tombs 

of  King  Pedro  and  of  Ines  de  Castro.     Legend  would  have 

it  that  they  were  buried  feet  to  feet,  in  order 

de  clttro        that  when  the  trumpet  of  the  Day  of  Judg- 
ment sounded  their  eyes  might  meet  at  once 
as  they  rose  from  the  dead.     In  the  striking  lines  of  the  modern 


94  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

Portuguese  poet,  Snr.  Affonso  Lopes  Vieira — striking  by 
reason  of  their  fine  sound  and  volume — 

Hao  de  accordar  sorrindo  eternamente, 
Os  olhos  um  no  outro  emfim  pousando. 

(They  will  awake  and  smile  henceforth  for  ever, 
As  their  eyes  meet  at  length  in  fond  embrace.) 

Such  subtleties  were  scarcely  of  that  age,  but  the  tombs  (and 
their  recumbent  figures)  certainly  face  one  another,  minutely 
and  delightfully  carved  in  stone.  The  rivers  Alcoa  and  Ba9a 
meet  at  Alcobaga,  and  a  tributary  of  the  Alcoa,  a  tiny  stream, 
runs  beneath  the  convent.  Some  of  the  tombs  in  this  Capella 
dos  Tumulos  are  green  with  damp  and  run  a  fair  chance  of 
permanent  injury.  King  Diniz'  mother  as  well  as  the  children 
of  Pedro  and  Ines  are  buried  in  the  same  chapel.  Round  the 
cruel  fate  of  lovely  Ines  a  whole  literature  has  grown  up  in 
prose  and  verse,  from  the  fine  verses  of  the  courtier  poet 
Garcia  de  Resende — far  the  best  that  he  wrote — in  the  reign 
of  King  Manoel  I  to  the  poem  Costanfa  by  Snr.  Eugenio  de 
Castro,  and  the  sonnet  which  the  two  lines  quoted  above 
close.  There  is  scarcely  an  educated  Portuguese  who  does 
not  try  his  hand  at  poetry,  and  scarcely  a  Portuguese  poet 
who  escapes  the  temptation  to  renew  in  verse  the  tragic  tale 
of  In£s  de  Castro.  The  temptation  is  the  greater  in  that 
she  lived  and  died  a  stone's  throw  from  the  halls  of  Coimbra, 
in  which  most  Portuguese  receive  their  education,  and  repre- 
sents in  her  romantic  story  and  sorrowful  ending  all  that  is 
most  meigo  and  saudoso  in  Portuguese  saudade.  From  the 
fifteenth  to  the  twentieth  century  the  Ines  legend  runs  like 
a  connecting  link  through  Portuguese  literature,  and  if  it 
has  never  yet  been  treated  with  more  than  a  pretty  lyric 
wistfulness  in  minor  poems  beautiful  but  subjective,  perhaps 
these  are  the  basis  and  preparation  for  the  great  poet  who  will 
record  it  in  a  spirit  of  true  and  high  Tragedy  worthy  of  the 
subject  and  of  these  Alcoba£a  sculptures.  Pedro  and  Ines 
do  not  even  meet  in  the  celebrated  drama,  Ines  de  Castro,  by 


*  • 


Convents  and  Palaces  95 

Antonio  Ferreira  (1528-69).  He  discreetly  left  that  for 
the  Day  of  Judgment,  rightly  feeling,  no  doubt,  that  his  own 
powers  of  description  and  psychology  would  be  inadequate 
to  the  occasion.  So  they  still  lie  waiting  separated  by  these 
barriers  of  incomparable  sculpture  in  the  gloomy  damp 
Chapel  of  the  Tombs.  With  relief  the  visitor  emerges  to  the 
sunny  cloisters,  a  part  of  which  really  dates  from  the  days 
of  stout-hearted  King  Diniz  and  escaped  the  far-spread 
destruction  of  the  Peninsular  War. 

Portugal's  Battle  Abbey,  the  Mosteiro  da  Batalha  or  de 
Santa  Maria  da  Vitoria  commemorates  a  victory  not  over  the 

Moors,  but  over  the  invading  Spaniard  in  the 
Batalha.         battle  of  Aljubarrota,  King  Joao  I  against 

King  Juan  I.  The  military  genius  and 
enthusiasm  of  Nun'  Alvares  won  the  day.  King  Joao  two 
years  later  married  an  English  wife.  Their  children  were 
given  an  English  education,  and  became  Prince  Henry  the 
Navigator,  King  Edward  the  Eloquent,  one  of  the  masters 
of  early  Portuguese  prose,  the  Infante  Pedro,  also  author  and 
statesman,  and  the  Infante  Fernando,  who  died  loyally  in 
Africa,  a  happier  death  than  that  which  awaited  his  brother 
Pedro,  killed  in  a  civil  feud  in  the  reign  of  his  nephew  Affonso 
V.  English  was  all  the  order  of  the  day,  the  story  of  King 
Arthur  penetrated  deep  into  Portuguese  Court  life  and  litera- 
ture, the  knightly  Galahad  was  Nun'  Alvares'  model  and  hero. 
And  under  English  influence,  perhaps  English  workmen,  was 
begun  the  great  monastery  which  stands  so  nobly  apart,  grey 
traceries  and  pinnacles  in  a  hollow  of  dark  pine-covered  hills. 
It  must  ever  continue  to  be  one  of  the  chief  attractions  to 
those  who  visit  Portugal,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  it  will 
ever  retain  its  rustic  situation,  far  from  trains,  hotels  and 
all  those  appurtenances  of  civilisation  which  usually  dog  the 
tourist's  footsteps.  Indeed,  this  sequestered  region  between 
Leiria  and  Alcobaga  will  to  many,  whether  they  drive  or  walk, 
but  especially  if  they  walk,  remain  the  principal  among  their 
many  delightful  memories  of  Portugal.  The  church  of  Batalha 


96  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

is  more  magnificent  than  that  of  Alcobaga,  yet  in  some  respects 
as  severely  beautiful.  These  lordly  pillars  have  none  of  the 
false  ornament  which  defaces  the  pillars  of  Belem,  and  the 
arches  are  of  unrivalled  boldness  and  beauty  of  proportion. 
Some  of  the  windows  have  kept  pieces  of  fine  old  stained  glass 
among  much  modern  stuff.  In  the  Chapel  of  the  Founders 
are  the  tombs  of  the  Master  of  Aviz,  Joao  I,  of  his  wife  Philippa 
of  Lancaster,  and  of  their  sons,  Pedro,  Enrique,  Joao,  and 
Fernando  (the  Infante  Santo),  whose  untimely  fate  probably 
hastened  the  death  of  his  brother,  King  Duarte,  whose  tomb 
is  in  another  chapel  of  this  church.  The  king  was  equally 
unwilling  to  give  up  Ceuta,  for  the  surrender  of  which  Prince 
Fernando  had  remained  hostage,  or  to  be  responsible  for  his 
brother's  death.  It  was  only  two  years  after  King  Duarte's 
death  at  Thomar  in  1438  that  the  Infante's  sufferings  in  a 
Moorish  dungeon  ended.  They  were  borne  with  a  patience 
and  intrepidity  which  made  of  him  a  true  principe  constante. 
His  story  is  told  in  the  Cronica  do  Infante  Santo  D.  Fernando, 
by  Frei  Joao  Alvarez.  It  is  poetic  justice  that  this  splendid 
building  should  unite  in  death  these  five  brothers  who  were 
as  talented  and  as  mutually  affectionate  as  they  were  ill-fated 
— if  fortunate  implies  long  life  rather  than  fine  character  or 
high  deeds  accomplished.  Alcobaga  for  the  most  part  scorns 
the  Manoeline  style  and  the  church  of  Batalha  is  as  purely 
Gothic.  Its  cloisters,  however,  and  Unfinished  Chapels 
(Capellas  Imperfeitas)  are  the  very  flower  of  Manoeline. 
This  strange  style,  typical  of  Portuguese  restlessness  and 
longing  for  new  things,  was  introduced  in  the  age  of  Portugal's 
great  discoveries  and  partly  under  Oriental  influence.  How- 
ever inartistic  its  general  effect,  in  details  it  is  often  beautiful, 
and  always  interesting  as  commemorating  Portugal's  naval 
glories  and  the  new  animals,  plants,  shells,  etc.,  found  beyond 
the  seas.  The  many  minute  designs,  as  well  as  the  cryptic 
"  Greek  "  inscriptions  (really  French  :  Tant  que  seray  lealte 
faray)  of  these  arches  in  the  Unfinished  Chapels  are  full  of 
interest.  The  first  view  of  Batalha  gives  an  impression  of 


Convents  and  Palaces  97 

greyness  ;  but,  nearer,  the  lower  part  is  found  to  be  built 
of  stone  originally  snow-white,  which  changes  to  the  most 
varied  hues  of  yellow  and  grey  as  time  and  weather  mould 
and  stain  it.  With  keen  regret  must  travellers  leave  Batalha 
to  take  their  way  along  the  white  road  between  pines  to 
Alcobaga  or  Leiria. 

A  longer  tramp  or  drive  going  East  from  Leiria  takes  one 
to  Thomar  in  the  very  heart  of  Portugal,  unless  one  goes  by 

train    to    Payalvo,    a   few   kilometres     from 
Thomar.        Thomar  on  the  other  side.     The  town  and 

its  river  may  have  exchanged  names  since 
the  ancient  Nabantia  apparently  had  a  river  called  Thomar, 
whereas  the  river's  name  is  now  Nabao.  The  site  of  Nabantia 
is  supposed  to  be  occupied  now  by  the  Church  of  Santa  Maria 
do  Olival,  the  oldest  church  of  the  Templars  in  Portugal,  built 
by  Gualdim  Paes,  one  of  the  heroes  of  legendary  feats  of  arms 
in  the  reign  of  the  first  King  of  Portugal.  If  in  parts  of  the 
interior  of  Batalha  the  Manoeline  style  is  seen  in  all  its  glory, 
in  the  Convent  of  Thomar  it  is  the  outside  walls  that  display 
it  in  a  way  so  bold  and  magnificent  as  to  silence  the  carpers. 
It  may  be  said  that  it  is  magnificent,  but  that  it  is  not  art : 
yet  it  was  well  that  in  at  least  one  great  building  the  outer 
walls  should  bear  silent  witness  through  the  centuries  to 
Portugal's  great  achievement.  Chain  and  grummet  and  rope, 
coral  from  distant  seas,  flowers  and  plants  and  birds  from 
tropical  lands,  anchors  and  even — a  conception  as  strange  as 
its  execution  was  happy — great  bellying  sails  in  stone, 
represent  the  story  of  those  ships  (ships  of  a  few  score 
tons) 

Que  foram  descobrir  mundos  e  mares. 

The  Convent  contains  a  succession  of  cloisters  and  archi- 
tecture of  many  centuries,  the  original  Church  of  the  Templars 
being  of  the  twelfth  century,  when  Affonso  I  relied  on  their 
strong  right  arms  to  force  back  the  Moors  mile  by  mile  to  the 
south.  Indeed,  the  building  is  a  perfect  wilderness  of  courts 

7— (2404) 


98  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

and  corridors.  Gualdim  Paes  is  not  the  only  hero  of  these 
now  deserted  halls,  for  Prince  Henry  the  Navigator  was 
Grand  Master  of  Thomar  for  over  forty  years,  till  his  death  in 
1460,  and  devoted  the  greater  part  of  the  revenues  of  the 
Templars  to  further  the  cause  he  had  most  at  heart — the 
extension  of  Christianity  into  lands  and  seas  unknown.  The 
view  from  the  terrace  is  of  surpassing  beauty,  and  it  seems  a 
pity  that  there  is  no  one  living  here  permanently  to  enjoy  it. 
The  gently  sloping  hills  are  covered  with  every  variety  of 
green,  from  the  grey  of  olives  to  the  dark  leaves  of  orange- 
trees.  On  the  other  side  there  is  a  view  of  Thomar  beneath 
the  Convent,  a  most  curious  town,  of  bare  discomfortable 
look  by  reason  of  its  angular  buildings,  steep  towers  and  spires, 
severe  mediaeval  churches  and  clean  streets  of  cobbles  without 
side  pavement.  Its  paper  mills  flourish,  so  that  it  does  not 
stand  aloof  from  modern  industry  and  progress,  but  its 
inhabitants  maintain  an  old-fashioned  pride  in  themselves 
and  their  town. 

Coimbra  lies  some  sixty  miles  due  north  of  Thomar,  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Serra  de  Louzd,  westernmost  offshoot  of  the 

Serra  da  Estrella.     Its  look  is  far  less  grey 
Coimbra.        and  stern  than  that  of  Thomar.     Most  of  its 

buildings  are  whitewashed,  and  a  few  washed 
in  pink  or  yellow,  so  that  the  old  cathedral  stands  out  like 
a  great  mass  of  rock  from  among  the  tier  after  tier  of  houses 
that  cover  the  steep  hill  above  the  Mondego.  Indeed,  it  is 
the  exterior  of  the  Se  Velha  that  is  chiefly  remarkable,  in  its 
massive  and  imposing  grandeur.  Coimbra  has  many  other 
fine  old  buildings  set  among  its  serried  houses.  The  Univer- 
sity or  Schools  (Pafos  das  Escholas)  stands  at  the  very  top  of 
the  town,  its  clock-tower  pointing  skyward.  Students  in  their 
long  black  coats,  white  ties,  and  flowing  gowns  (capas), 
bareheaded  even  in  July,  when  the  summer  term  ends,  are 
to  be  seen  everywhere  in  the  narrow  streets  or  along  the 
river  and  famous  walk  under  the  poplars  (the  Choupal).  The 
Faculty  of  Theology  is  now  abolished,  but  they  may  study 


Convents  and  Palaces  99 

mathematics,  philosophy,  philology,  medicine,  and  especially 
they  study  law  as  a  preliminary  to  a  political  career.  They 
enter  the  University  younger  than  is  usual  at  an  English 
University  and  remain  longer — about  eight  years.  The 
University  with  its  spacious  quadrangles,  fine  halls,  and 
library,  is  surrounded  by  a  view  of  valleys,  hills  and  river 
such  as  surely  no  other  University  in  the  world  can  boast. 
The  Mondego  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  rivers  of  Northern 
Portugal,  the  land  of  transparent  rivers  and  streams  flowing 
over  granite  and  tinged  by  no  taint  of  soil.  Close  to  the 
Mondego  across  the  bridge  is  the  remnant  of  the  old  convent 
of  Santa  Clara.  It  is  now  a  farmhouse  and  the  fine  capitals 
of  its  pillars  between  which  the  oxen  have  their  stalls  are  now 
but  a  few  feet  from  the  ground,  so  great  is  the  volume  of  sand 
carried  down  by  the  cheias  of  the  river.  It  flows  so  mansa- 
mente,  clear  and  gentle,  but  owing  to  the  rockiness  of  its  bed 
has  no  elasticity,  and  a  few  hours  of  heavy  rain  suffice  to  turn 
it  into  a  huge  rushing  torrent.  The  new  Mosteiro  de  Santa 
Clara  is  built  high  above  the  level  of  the  river,  and  the  Quinta 
das  Lagrimas  stands  some  way  from  its  banks.  Here  the 
Fonte  dos  Amores  flows  from  a  rock  of  ferns  and  flowers  through 
a  rough  cross-shaped  channel  of  stone,  the  iron-red  stains  of 
which  are  supposed  to  mark  the  place  where  Ines  de  Castro 
was  murdered  in  1355,  a  date  hardly  less  celebrated  in  Portugal 
than  that  other  fifty-five  of  the  great  Lisbon  earthquake  four 
centuries  later.  All  these  buildings  are  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
river  among  a  lovely  orchard-country  of  orange,  cherry,  and 
pomegranate.  The  principal  building  in  Coimbra  itself  after 
the  Se  Velha  is  the  Mosteiro  de  Santa  Cruz,  which  was  built 
in  the  twelfth  century,  and  contains  the  tombs  of  Affonso  and 
Sancho,  the  first  two  Kings  of  Portugal.  Its  church  is  much 
later,  built  by  Marcos  Pires  in  the  sixteenth  century.  He 
was  also  the  architect  of  the  Convent's  Manoeline  "  Cloisters 
of  Silence."  But  Coimbra  as  a  whole  seen  from  the  green 
Mondego  or  from  the  Mosteiro  de  Santa  Clara  beyond  it,  is  a 
work  of  art,  and  both  the  town  and  surrounding  country 


100  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

deserve    a   far   more    prolonged   study   than    they    usually 
receive. 

It  is  in  the  strip  of  country  between  Tagus  and  Mondego 
that  Portugal  has  massed  her  most  famous  and  beautiful 

buildings,  and  the  hurried  traveller  can  thus 
Striking        within  a  space  of  about  a  hundred  miles  see 

Belem  and  Cintra  and  Mafra,  Alcobaca, 
Batalha,  and  Thomar,  Santarem,  Leiria  and  Coimbra.  But 
Portugal  possesses  a  hundred  other  towns  and  towers  so 
splendidly  situated  as  to  need  little  art  for  their  beauty's 
heightening.  What  can  be  finer,  for  instances  at  random, 
than  the  position  of  Palmella  or  of  Covilha,  or  high-perched 
Guarda,  or  Louza,  or  the  castle  of  Melgaco,  or  the  ruins  of 
the  monastery  of  Crato,  the  early  home  of  Nun'  Alvares,  or 
of  the  castle  of  Almourol  on  its  Tagus  islet,  the  site  chosen  by 
the  Romans  and  the  castle  famous  in  the  adventures  of 
Palmeirim  of  England. 

The  provinces  of  Minho  and  Traz  os  Montes,  which  limit 
Portugal  to  the  north,  have  few  great  buildings.     Minho  is 

celebrated  rather  for  its  woods  and  hills  and 
Minho.         streams,    its    cheerful    quintas    in    pleasant 

surroundings  of  maize  and  granite,  than  for 
its  ancient  buildings.  It  is  not  a  country  of  large  towns. 
Several  unpretentious  small  towns  it  has  along  its  sand  and 
pine  coast,  Villa  do  Conde.  Povoa  de  Varzim  and  Vianna 
do  Castello,  the  latter  beautiful  in  its  sheltered  position  at 
the  mouth  of  the  river  Lima.  It  is  worth  following  up  this 
river,  which  inspired  the  poet  Diogo  Bernardes  with  his 
tenderest  verses,  and  to  which  his  thoughts  turned  longingly 
when  a  captive  in  Africa  after  the  battle  of  Alcacer  Kebir, 
for  it  really  is  beautiful,  and  the  quintas  and  villages  most 
interesting.  The  capital  of  Minho,  Braga,  has  few  old 
buildings  besides  the  Cathedral,  which  is  said  to  date  from 
the  first  years  of  Portugal's  existence,  and  preserves  the 
tomb  of  Count  Henry  of  Burgundy,  father  of  Portugal's  first 
King. 


Convents  and  Palaces  101 

Traz  os  Monies,  the  neighbouring  province  to  the  east, 
has  even  fewer  towns.     Its  villages  lie  like  those  of  Castille 
in  a  bleak  and  shadeless  country.     The  only 

*wo  w^  Pretensi°ns  to  tne  name  of  town  are 

Villa  Real,  the  capital,  and  Braganga.  Both 
of  these  towns  are  most  curious.  They  have  rather  many 
interesting  scraps  of  carved  wood  and  stone  than  any  great 
buildings,  but  the  Castle  of  the  Braganzas  is  one  of  the  finest 
of  the  many  noble  castles  that  crown  the  hills  of  Portugal. 
It  is  surrounded  by  a  wall  within  which  is  a  little  village  of 
streets  and  shops  of  its  own,  so  that  it  forms  a  miniature  town 
above  Braganga.  The  wall  hides  these  low  houses,  tiny  shops 
and  narrow  streets  from  sight,  and  the  town  of  Braganga  itself 
is  in  a  hollow,  so  that  from  some  distance  one  sees  only  the 
great  castle  standing  out  among  the  bare  treeless  hills. 

Oporto,  too,  has  succeeded  in  retaining  its  individuality. 
The  towns  of  Portugal  have  to  thank  their  position  on  steep 

hills,  strong  sites  chosen  against  attack  of 
Oporto.         Moor  or  Christian,  for  having  kept  in  some 

at  least  of  their  quarters  a  peculiar  character 
of  mediaeval  charm.  So  steep  are  many  of  Oporto's  streets 
that  a  strike  of  tramcars — which  in  Portugal  ascend  streets 
truly  perpendicular — leaves  the  citizens  in  a  comical  helpless- 
ness, infants  without  arms.  Oporto  covers  several  hills  on  the 
right  bank  of  the  Douro.  The  river  is  here  so  narrow,  the 
granite  banks  so  steep  that  from  some  points  of  the  city  one 
may  look  across  from  one  bank  to  the  other  without  realising 
that  there  is  any  break  or  that  a  river  flows  between.  Oporto 
is  the  only  city  of  Portugal  besides  Lisbon.  The  latest  returns 
give  a  population  of  194,000.  The  total  number  of  foreigners 
is  7,210,  of  which  3,110  are  Brazilians,  2,764  Spaniards,  289 
French,  229  Germans,  and  579  English  (census  of  1911). 
It  is  a  busy  industrial  city,  and  has  no  parades  of  idleness 
like  Lisbon,  where  the  busy  workers  are  crushed  away  into  side 
streets  and  quays,  for  fear  the  foreigner  should  see  such  undig- 
nified behaviour.  The  true  Lisboeta's  ambition  is  to  do 


102  :  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

nothing,  and  to  do  it  elegantly.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
inhabitant  of  Oporto  is  proud  of  his  business.  He  is  more 
vigorous  and  active,  and  has  a  sterner  and  more  independent 
outlook  on  life.  And  the  two  cities  are  rivals,  sometimes 
almost  bitterly  hostile.  It  is  the  steep  right  bank  of  the  Douro 
which  has  provided  Oporto  with  its  most  curious  and  conserva- 
tive quarters.  There  is  here  little  scope  for  change.  The 
narrow  streets  descend  so  sheerly  that  they  have  become 
in  places  mere  flights  of  stone  steps,  and  the  coal  smoke  of 
Oporto  gives  them  a  coat  of  blackness.  It  is  the  most 
northern  in  look  of  all  southern  cities.  If  you  were  to  trans- 
port a  part  of  the  City  or  some  town  of  the  North  of  England 
to  the  radiant  sunshine  and  crushing  heat  of  Portugal,  you 
might  have  a  like  effect.  Not  that  Oporto  has  not  plenty  of 
colour  in  detail,  but  the  first  impression  is  one  of  iron-grey  and 
gloom.  The  fine  old  Cathedral  stands  immediately  above 
these  steep  descents  to  the  river.  One  says  "  old  "  naturally, 
although  it  retains  nothing  of  the  twelfth  century,  when  it 
was  founded,  and  much  of  it  is  quite  modern  :  for  the  granite 
of  which  it  is  built  has  a  look  of  age  even  in  its  first  youth. 
The  cloisters  are  five  centuries  old,  the  oldest  part  of  the 
building.  In  the  sordid  surroundings  and  in  the  summer  heat, 
which  can  be  more  oppressive  at  Oporto  than  at  Lisbon,  the 
Cathedral  is  a  cool  refuge  to  which,  however,  few  of  the 
citizens  have  apparently  the  leisure  to  go  ;  or  the  energy, 
unless  they  live  in  some  little  black  court  or  smothered  alley 
in  its  neighbourhood.  More  central  is  the  eighteenth-century 
Priests'  Tower — Torre  dos  Clerigos — nearly  a  twentieth  of  a 
mile  high,  from  which  all  Oporto  and  the  surrounding  country 
can  be  seen.  Oporto  has  older  buildings,  as  the  Church  of 
Sao  Martinho  de  Cedofeita,  of  the  twelfth  century,  but  the 
real  pride  of  its  citizens  is  in  the  Jardim  da  Cordoaria,  planted 
fifty  years  ago,  in  the  Palacio  de  Crystal,  of  the  same  date, 
built  in  imitation  of  the  Crystal  Palace,  in  the  statue  of  Prince 
Henry  the  Navigator  (1900)  ;  the  "  Avenue  of  Fountains  " 
above  the  Douro  and  the  200  ft.  high  bridge  of  Dom  Luiz  I 


Convents  and  Palaces  103 

across  it.  On  top  of  the  left  bank  in  rocky  prominence  is  the 
old  Convent  of  the  Augustinians,  Nossa  Senhora  da  Serra  do 
Pilar,  famous  in  the  Peninsular  War,  and  beneath  are  the 
gaily  washed  cellars  and  armazens  of  the  port-wine  merchants 
in  the  most  ancient  town  of  Gaia. 

Rarely  does  the  foreign  traveller  in  Portugal,  rarely  the 
Portuguese   traveller    on    pleasure    bent,  cross  the    Tagus. 
Alemtejo  and  Algarve  are  relegated  for  the 

d    most  P^1  to  the  &lare   of  the  sun  and  to 
farmers,  engineers  and  commercial  travellers. 

Only  a  few  cunning  persons  know  that  a  whole  new  kingdom 
of  pleasure  and  interest  here  awaits  the  enterprising.  But 
it  must  be  confessed  that  the  travelling  is  not  easy,  and  that 
the  train  which  saunters  along  the  single  railway,  zigzagging 
towards  Algarve,  takes  a  whole  day  to  reach  Faro  from  Lisbon. 
The  foreigner  coming  from  Badajoz  sees  the  delightful  town 
of  Elvas,  sees  perhaps  Estremoz  or  Portalegre.  But  many 
other  towns  and  villages  deserve  his  attention,  Setubal  for  its 
position  and  groves  of  oranges,  Santarem  for  its  splendid 
view  of  the  Tagus  valley,  Vianna  do  Alemtejo,  a  white  village 
above  wide  charnecas,  Monchique,  high  in  the  southernmost 
serra  of  Portugal,  the  ancient  Silves,  once  a  flourishing  city 
of  the  Moors,  Sines  and  Sagres  for  their  more  modern 
historical  associations,  Lagos  in  its  beautiful  sheltered  bay 
calling  to  all  those  who  like  hot  winters,  Portimao  with  its  no 
less  beautiful  Praia  da  Rocha. 

Beja,  in  the  heart  of  Alemtejo,  rightly  has  an  ox  in  its 
city  arms,  a  strong  frontier  town  transformed  into  a  centre 

of  agriculture  since  the  days  of  King  Diniz. 
Beja.  It  is  seen  from  far  across  the  level  plain,  a 

beautiful  old  town  on  a  hill,  its  outline  of 
crumbling  walls  and  towers  clear  against  the  sky.  Its  castle, 
with  the  magnificent  Torre  de  Menagem,  was  built,  as  so  many 
other  Portuguese  castles,  by  King  Diniz,  who  clearly  saw  the 
importance  of  Beja  as  a  centre  for  his  "  nerves  of  the  republic," 
the  peasants  of  the  soil.  The  whole  town  is  extraordinarily 


104  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

picturesque,  with  no  lack  of  colour  in  its  narrow  lanes  and 
streets.  The  water-carriers  wheel  their  hand-carts  with  holes 
for  twenty-four  or  a  dozen  jars  from  far  outside  the  town, 
and  the  peasants  go  out  in  troops  to  till  the  soil  or  gather  the 
harvest,  returning  at  nightfall  to  Beja's  sheltering  walls,  as 
if  some  sudden  attack  of  the  Moors  were  to  be  feared.  This 
daedal  of  steep  streets  enshrines  beautiful  churches,  as  that 
of  Nossa  Senhora  da  Conceicao,  but  it  is  the  streets  themselves 
and  the  lovely  ruins  of  Beja  that  are  its  chief  attraction. 
Both  the  Kings  Manoel  bore  the  title  of  Duke  of  Beja  before 
coming  to  the  throne,  which  is  to  say,  that  neither  of  them 
was  the  heir  apparent,  this  being  the  title  borne  by  the  King's 
second  son. 

The  capital  of  Alemtejo  is  Evora,  which  thus  keeps  some- 
thing of  the  importance  that  formerly  made  it  the  second 

city  of  Portugal.     It  has  now  sunk  to  a  pro- 
Evora.          vincial   life,   although   in   the   fifteenth   and 

sixteenth  centuries  it  figured  largely  in 
Portuguese  history  as  a  favourite  residence  of  the  Court.  It 
remains,  however,  the  paradise  of  the  archaeologist  and  stu- 
dent of  architecture,  as  it  was  in  the  time  of  Andre  de  Resende. 
Even  before  entering  the  town  the  old  church  of  Sao  Braz, 
of  curious  and  forbidding  exterior,  arrests  the  attention. 
It  is  more  like  a  turreted  fortification  than  a  church.  Within 
the  walls  of  the  town  one  comes  at  every  step  on  some  fine 
old  building  or  ruin,  or  rather  within  what  remains  of  these 
magnificent  walls.  It  was  at  the  entrance  of  the  town  that 
Trancoso  in  the  sixteenth  century  placed  an  incident  in  one 
of  the  most  entertaining  of  his  "  profitable  histories."  The 
poor  man  of  his  tale,  reduced  to  the  extreme  of  misery,  per- 
secuted by  all,  and  made  desperate  by  such  injustice,  threw 
himself  over  the  battlement.  Now  it  happened  that  an  old 
paralysed  man  was  seated  taking  the  sun  beneath  the  wall, 
and  the  poor  man  fell  on  top  of  him.  He  himself  escaped 
unhurt,  but  he  killed  the  old  man.  Here  was  another  charge 
against  him,  and  the  old  man's  son  demanded  a  life  for  a  life. 


Convents  and  Palaces  105 

The  judge  was  the  father  of  Sancho,  of  the  island  of  Barataria. 
He  decreed  that  the  poor  man  should  sit  in  the  chair  of  the 
paralysed  and  take  the  sun  beneath  the  wall  of  Evora,  and 
that  the  dead  man's  son  should  throw  himself  from  the  wall 
on  top  of  him  and  so  kill  him.  The  whole  town  of  Evora 
has  been  described  as  an  archaeological  museum,  and  the 
narrow  streets  sometimes  ascending  steeply  with  quaint 
wooden  arcades  on  either  side,  the  houses  of  massive  stone 
and  ironwork  and  green  shutters,  the  squares  and  chafarizes 
(fountains),  the  hanging  gardens  of  private  houses,  and  the 
public  gardens  brimming  with  flowers,  the  tiny  shops,  dark 
beneath  arcades,  the  fairs  and  markets,  all  make  of  Evora  one 
of  the  most  peculiar  and  interesting  of  cities.  And  there 
is  the  fine  imposing  sixteenth-century  church  of  Sao  Francisco, 
with  its  massive  exterior  walls  and  pillars,  and,  inside  the 
famous  chapel,  the  Room  of  Bones  (Casa  dos  Ossos) — 

N6s  ossos 
Que  aqui  estamos 
Pelos  vossos 
Esperamos. 
(We  bones  that  lie  here  wait  for  yours  to  appear.) 

The  early  Gothic  cathedral  was  originally  finished  in  1204, 
but  is,  of  course,  as  it  stands,  largely  of  later  date.  Its  interior 
contains  much  fine  work  of  both  the  sixteenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries.  Almost  touching  it  is  one  of  the  finest  Roman 
ruins  in  existence,  the  "  Temple  of  Diana/'  nearly  2,000  years 
old,  its  magnificent  Corinthian  columns  still  supporting  massive 
blocks  of  granite.  It  stands  at  the  top  of  the  town,  having 
thus  little  to  fear  from  the  encroachment  of  modern  buildings, 
and  is  outlined  proudly  against  the  sky.  One  may  hope, 
since  so  many  pillars  have  escaped  as  by  a  miracle  from  the 
peril  of  earthquake,  that  it  may  stand  there  during  another 
score  of  centuries  and  escape  destruction  and  mutilation  at 
the  hands  of  man,  though  indeed  to  the  materialist  it  is  as 
valueless  as  a  flower,  a  crimson  sunset,  or  a  Cathedral 
evensong. 


106  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

Faro  is  nearly  two  hundred  miles  due  south  of  Evora, 
and  between  the  two  towns  is  all  the  difference  between 

serious  solid  conservative  Alemtejo  and  gay 
Faro.  epicurean  Algarve.  Faro  cannot  vie  with 

Evora  in  the  matter  of  buildings,  it  has  no 
palaces  or  convents,  though  it  has  an  interesting  little  cathe- 
dral. Of  the  Convent  of  Sao  Bento  only  the  cloisters  survive. 
But  in  its  position  on  the  sea,  its  lines  of  low  houses  washed 
in  many  light  hues,  its  inner  harbour,  like  some  still  sky- 
reflecting  lagoon,  its  markets  and  the  shifting  scenes  that 
enliven  its  streets  and  prapas,  it  is  one  of  the  most  charming 
of  Portugal's  towns,  and  gives  the  traveller  one  of  those  lively 
impressions  of  contrast  in  which  the  whole  land  of  Portugal 
abounds.  Surely  no  other  combines  in  so  small  a  space  so 
many  varieties  of  natural  scenery  and  of  architecture. 


CHAPTER  VII 

HISTORICAL   SURVEY 

THE  early,  the  first  five,  centuries,  of  Portugal's  history  read 
like  some  enchanting  romance  of  chivalry,  a  long  chain  of 

heroic  deeds  by  a  few  great  men  in  an  age 

when  the  individual  counted  for  everything. 

In  Roman  history,  Viriathus,  the  chieftain 
of  the  Serra  da  Estrella,  and  the  Lusitanians  under  Sertorius 
had  signalized  themselves  for  their  courage  and  powers  of 
resistance.  But  Portugal  was  but  a  part  of  a  Roman  province 
— modern  Portugal  corresponds  only  in  part  to  the  ancient 
Lusitania — nor  was  it  in  existence  as  a  separate  region  when 
Count  Henry  of  Burgundy  became  Count  of  Portugal  in  1095. 
The  Moors,  who  had  conquered  Lisbon  three  centuries  after 
the  Roman  rule  in  Lusitania  came  to  an  end  in  A.D.  409, 
were  still  in  possession,  although  temporarily  ousted  by 
Alfonso  VI,  King  of  Leon,  in  1093.  Thus  the  province 
which  separated  itself  from  Galicia  consisted  of  a  narrow 
tract  with  wavering  borders  between  the  Minho  and  the 
Tagus. 

Count  Henry  had  extended  its  southern  frontier  before  he 
died  in  1112,  but  it  was  his  son  Affonso  Henriques,  who,  by 

his  mighty  deeds  of  war,  really  established 
Affonso  I.       the  kingdom.     Santarem  was  taken  in  1147, 

and  in  the  same  year,  with  the  help  of  English 
and  other  Crusaders,  Lisbon.  His  mother,  the  Countess 
Theresa,  was  Regent  from  1112  to  1128,  but  in  the  latter 
year  he  took  over  the  reins  of  power.  For  the  first  year  of 
his  rule  he  was  at  war  with  Castille,  but  soon  all  his  energies 
were  directed  against  the  Moors,  and  the  battle  of  Ourique, 
before  which  Christ  was  supposed  to  have  appeared  to  the 
Infante,  promising  him  victory,  definitely  turned  the  scales 

107 


108  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

in  favour  of  the  Christians  (1 139).  Henceforth  he  was  known 
as  King  of  Portugal,  a  title  conferred  perhaps  on  the  battle- 
field of  Ourique  and  confirmed  at  the  Cortes  of  Lamego  (1 143). 
The  King's  untiring  energy  had  the  great  incentive  that  what- 
ever territory  he  won  from  the  Moors  he  held  in  his  own  right, 
and  if  this  territory  became  greater  than  that  originally  held 
in  fealty  to  Leon,  Portugal  would  almost  naturally  become 
independent.  His  prudence  seems  to  have  matched  his 
valour,  and  he  parried  the  claims  of  Leon  by  making  Portugal 
tributary  to  the  Pope.  In  1184,  after  nearly  sixty  years  of 
warfare,  begun  in  1128  against  his  own  mother  in  order  to 
obtain  his  kingdom,  the  old  King  was  once  more  in  arms, 
with  the  object  of  relieving  his  son,  besieged  in  Santarem 
by  the  Moors.  He  died  in  the  following  year,  in  great  honour 
and  glory.  The  King  had  made  the  nation. 

His  son,  Sancho  I,  second  King  of  Portugal  (1185-1211), 
and  perhaps  also  her  first  poet  (in  a  poem  addressed  to  the 

fair  Maria  Paes),  had  proved  himself  in  his 
Sancho  I.       youth  worthy  of  his  father's  great  reputation. 

The  conquest  of  the  south  of  the  Peninsula 
from  the  Moors  continued.  Silves  was  taken  in  1189,  retaken 
by  the  Moors  in  1191.  But  Sancho  did  not  confine  himself 
to  war  :  he  founded  towns  and  encouraged  agriculture  to 
such  an  extent  that  he  became  known  as  the  Labrador  or  the 
Poblador.  In  his  reign  occurred  the  first  disagreement 
between  Church  and  State,  which  was  soon  to  grow  to  so 
serious  a  conflict.  The  religious  orders  for  their  past  and 
prospective  services  against  the  Moors  had  received  huge 
grants  of  land  from  his  father  and  from  King  Sancho  himself. 
Often  an  Order  would  be  given  the  whole  of  a  vast  tract  of 
land  still  unconquered  from  the  Moors.  It  seemed  a  little 
thing  at  the  time,  but  when  conquered  and  cultivated,  made 
the  possessors  as  powerful  as  the  King  or  more  so.  King 
Sancho,  however,  left  a  prosperous  kingdom  at  his  death.  By 
his  will  he  bequeathed  certain  important  towns  to  his  daughters 
absolutely. 


Historical  Survey  109 

Their  brother,  King  Affonso  II,  refused  to  waive  his  right 
to  these  towns,  and  the  first  years  of  his  reign  were  occupied 

with  civil  war,  while  it  ended  in  a  first  serious 
Affonso  II.      disagreement    with   the   Clergy   and    Rome. 

The  most  welcome  event  of  his  reign  was  the 
capture  of  the  strongly  fortified  town  of  Alcacer  do  Sal 
from  the  Moors  in  1217,  with  the  help  of  Crusaders  who 
had  sheltered  in  the  Tagus  and  sailed  up  the  Sado  to  the 
attack. 

In  the  reign  of  his  son,  Sancho  II  (1223-46),  the  strife  with 
the  Clergy  developed  and  the  powerful  nobility  took  part 

against  the  King,  the  dissatisfaction  being 
Sancho  II.       fanned   apparently  by  the  report  that  the 

King  intended  to  marry  his  distant  cousin, 
Mecia  Lopes  de  Haro,  daughter  of  the  Lord  of  Biscay.  The 
King,  who  had  continued  the  conquest  of  Algarve,  and  won 
the  important  town  of  Tavira,  was  powerless  to  withstand  the 
forces  united  against  him.  A  deputation  of  Portuguese 
prelates  and  nobles  waited  on  the  Pope  at  Lyon,  and  persuaded 
him  to  depose  King  Sancho,  or  rather  to  appoint  his  brother 
Affonso  as  Regent.  The  cynical  and  ambitious  Affonso 
had  been  long  resident  in  France,  and  he  now  accepted 
the  offer  with  some  alacrity,  taking  whatever  oaths  were 
required  of  him  before  he  set  out  for  Portugal.  The  King 
fled  at  his  approach,  and  died  two  years  later  an  exile  at 
Toledo  (1248). 

As  he  was  childless,  Affonso  was  his  natural  successor. 
His  ambitions  realised,  he  made  a  good  king — he  seems  to 

have    had    great    personal    attractions — and 
Affonso  III.     continued  successful  in  all  his  undertakings. 

The  conquest  of  Algarve  was  completed, 
Faro,  facing  out  towards  Africa,  falling  to  the  King  in  1249. 
A  dispute  between  Affonso  III  and  Alfonso  X,  the  Learned, 
of  Castille,  arose  out  of  these  Portuguese  victories  in  Algarve. 
The  Guadiana  was  not  yet  a  boundary  between  Spain  and 
Portugal,  and  it  seemed  as  if  the  victorious  Portuguese  might 


110  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

eventually  deprive  Castille  of  the  potential  possession  of  the 
whole  southern  strip  of  the  Peninsula,  even  to  Almeria. 
A  treaty  settled  their  differences  in  1253.  By  this  treaty 
Affonso  III  was  to  marry  Brites,  illegitimate  daughter  of 
Alfonso  X.  The  wedding,  as  well  as  the  bride,  was  illegitimate, 
for  the  Portuguese  King  was  already  married  to  the  French 
Countess  Mathilde.  The  dowry  now  offered  was  a  glittering 
temptation,  and  the  Pope,  who  excommunicated  Affonso  III 
for  bigamy,  should  have  included  in  his  ban  the  Castilian 
monarch,  fellow-conspirator  with  Affonso  in  this  wickedness. 
When  Affonso  died  his  eldest  son,  Diniz  or  Denis  (1279- 
1325)  was  in  his  eighteenth  year.  Owing  to  the  illness  of  his 

father — bedridden  for  years  before  his  death 
Diniz.  — he  had  early  taken  a  part  in  affairs.  Indeed, 

at  the  age  of  six,  we  find  him  a  full-blown 
diplomatist,  sent  on  a  mission — connected  with  the  inde- 
pendence of  Algarve — to  his  grandfather,  King  Alfonso  the 
Learned,  at  Seville.  As  King,  his  activities  were  many-sided, 
and  in  all  of  them  he  showed  the  same  strong  will  and  good 
sense,  always  directed  towards  the  strengthening  of  Portugal, 
and  making  the  interests  of  throne  and  people  one.  The 
quarrel  between  the  State  and  the  Church  in  Portugal,  backed 
by  the  Vatican,  which  had  caused  his  father  to  die  excom- 
municate, continued,  but  by  an  attitude  of  equal  firmness 
and  justice,  King  Diniz  contrived  to  bring  about  a  settlement, 
and  to  check  the  acquisition  of  real  property  by  the  religious 
orders.  The  same  firm  hand  dealt  with  the  overweening 
nobility.  Some  discontent  was  felt  among  the  nobles,  and 
Diniz'  real  popularity  was  with  the  workmen,  peasants,  and 
small  farmers,  whose  interests  he  so  unflaggingly  protected. 
Throughout,  the  country  he  built  and  rebuilt  walls  and  towns 
and  towers,  and  encouraged  the  cultivators  of  the  soil  as 
"  the  nerves  of  the  republic."  He  founded  in  1290  at  Lisbon 
the  University,  which  after  several  removals  from  Lisbon  to 
Coimbra  and  from  Coimbra  to  Lisbon,  is  now  definitely  fixed 
at  Coimbra,  And,  as  if  he  foresaw  all  Portugal's  destined  task 


Historical  Survey  111 

and  glory,  he  encouraged  ship-building,  imported  an  admiral 
for  his  fleet  from  Genoa,  and  planted  the  country  about 
Leiria  with  pines.  As  a  poet  he  has  left  us  a  greater  number 
of  lyrics  than  any  other  early  king,  with  the  exception,  perhaps, 
of  his  grandfather  of  Castille.  And  he  wrote  them  not  only 
in  the  Provencal  manner,  but  characteristically  encouraged 
the  indigenous  poetry  derived  from  the  soil  of  Galicia.  He  was 
a  thorough  Portuguese,  and  ruled  over  a  Clearly  defined  region 
with  the  boundaries  of  modern  Portugal.  The  first  years 
of  his  reign  were  clouded  by  civil  strife  with  his  brother, 
who  based  a  claim  to  the  Crown  on  the  fact  that  Diniz  was 
born  before  the  Countess  Mathilde  died,  and  his  last  years 
were  saddened  by  disagreement  with  his  eldest  son.  This 
only  did  not  come  to  battles  even  more  serious  than  those 
actually  fought  owing  to  the  untiring  mediation  of  King 
Diniz'  wife,  the  Queen  Saint  Elizabeth. 

King  Diniz,  the  Lavrador,  was  reconciled  to  and  succeeded 
by  this  son,  Affonso  IV.     Under  Affonso  the  relations  with 

Castille  became  more  and  more  frequent,  and 
Affonso  IV.      in  1340  the  Portuguese  King  and  the  flower 

of  the  Portuguese  chivalry  helped  to  wini 
the  great  battle  of  Salado  against  the  Moors.  Affonso  IV,. 
who  had  embittered  his  father's  last  years,  suffered  in  turn  at 
the  hands  of  his  son.  It  must  be  allowed  that  Pedro  had 
some  excuse,  for  the  King  had  sanctioned  the  murder,  during 
his  son's  absence,  of  the  mother  of  Pedro's  three  children,  the 
lovely  Ines  de  Castro.  Maddened  with  grief,  Pedro  harassed 
his  father's  realm  with  fire  and  sword. 

This  sorrow  seems  to  have  increased  the  eccentricity  of  his 
character,  so  that  at  times  there  seemed  a  streak  of  madness. 

It  was  he  who  thrashed  the  Bishop  of  Porto, 
Pedro  I.         it  was  he  who  condemned  a  stonecutter  who 

had  killed  a  man  to  the  same  sentence  as  a 
priest  who  had  killed  a  man  :  after  ascertaining  that  the 
priest  had  been  forbidden  to  say  mass  as  punishment,  he 
sternly  forbade  the  stonecutter  to  cut  any  more  stones.  There 


112  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

was  grim  humour  in  many  of  the  sentences  of  this  Rei  Justi- 
ceiro,  and  they  were  always  directed  against  the  powerful,  the 
nobility,  the  clergy,  the  King's  officials  in  favour  of  the  weak 
and  unprotected,  so  that  the  people  sang  his  praises.  He 
seems  to  have  had  something  of  his  grandfather,  King  Diniz', 
art  of  popularity  without  his  high  sense  of  dignity.  Pedro's 
passion  was  for  the  dance  and  to  the  blowing  of  his  long  silver 
trumpets  he  would  dance  through  the  streets  of  Lisbon  by 
night  or  day. 

After  a  reign  of  ten  years  (1357-67)  he  was  succeeded  by  the 
reckless  and  irresponsible  Fernando,  who  contrived  during  his 

reign  of  sixteen  years  to  squander  the  great 
Fernando  I.      wealth  built  up  by  the  Kings  of  Portugal 

since  Affonso  III.  He  must  needs  lay  claim 
to  the  Crown  of  Castille,  and  in  a  series  of  unnecessary  wars 
brought  his  kingdom  to  the  verge  of  ruin.  Lisbon  was 
besieged  by  land  and  sea  by  the  Castilians  in  1373.  The 
King's  unpopularity  was  increased  by  his  marriage  with  the 
wily  and  unscrupulous  Leonor  Telles.  It  was  in  this  reign 
that  occurred  the  murder  of  the  beautiful  and  innocent  Maria 
Telles,  at  the  hands  of  her  own  husband,  brother  of  the  King 
and  son  of  murdered  Ines,  by  instigation  of  her  sister  Leonor. 
Her  fate  has  been  less  celebrated  than  that  of  Ines,  but  had 
no  less  of  tragedy  and  pathos.  During  the  whole  of  the 
fourteenth  century  a  succession  of  double  marriages  between 
the  royal  families  of  Castille  and  Portugal  increased  the  mutual 
familiarity,  if  not  friendliness,  of  the  two  countries.  Finally, 
to  crown  the  impolicy  of  his  whole  reign,  Fernando  married 
his  daughter  Beatrice  to  King  Juan  I  of  Castille  in  the  year 
1383,  thereby  almost  irretrievably  assuring  Portugal's  union 
with  or  rather  subjection  to  Castille.  He  had  previously 
settled  to  marry  her  to  nearly  every  prince  in  Europe,  but 
did  not  consider  himself  bound  by  treaties.  To  him  they 
were  mere  scraps  of  paper.  The  old-fashioned  German 
historian,  Heinrich  Schafer,  writing  in  1835,  says  that  "  neither 
duty  nor  honour  could  bind  him  "  to  respect  them. 


Historical  Survey  113 

His  widow,  Queen  Leonor,  stood  for  the  cause  of  Castille, 
wishing  the  Portuguese  throne  for  her  daughter  and  son-in-law. 

After  her  favourite,  Joao  Fernandes  Andeiro, 
JoSo  I.  Count  of  Ourem,  had  been  murdered  almost 

before  her  eyes  in  the  palace,  and  popular 
excesses  at  Lisbon,  Evora  and  other  towns  had  fully  showed  the 
danger  of  her  position,  she  retired  from  Lisbon  and  joined  the 
Spanish  invader.  Early  in  1384  King  Juan  I  was  at  Santarem, 
styling  himself  King  of  Castille,  Leon  and  Portugal.  Thus 
Portugal  was  ruled  at  one  and  the  same  time  by  two  Kings 
John  I,  for  the  Infante  Joao,  Master  of  Aviz,  illegitimate  son 
of  King  Pedro,  and  intensely  popular,  especially  at  Lisbon, 
was  now  king  in  all  but  name.  Many  of  the  Portuguese 
nobility  favoured  the  cause  of  Castille,  and  King  Juan  I 
appeared  to  have  good  chance  of  ultimate  victory.  Queen 
Leonor  soon  found  that  she  had  exchanged  one  difficult 
position  for  another.  She  was  virtually  a  prisoner  in  the 
King's  hands,  and  was  finally  relegated  to  the  Convent  of 
Tordesillas.  The  Castilians  besieged  Lisbon  closely  by  land 
and  sea,  and  only  the  plague  in  their  ranks  brought  relief  to 
the  starving  city.  On  the  6th  of  April,  1385,  the  Infante  Joao 
was  formally  chosen  King  of  Portugal.  His  chief  supporter 
was,  like  Napoleon,  worth  a  whole  army.  Others  might  waver, 
but  in  Nun'  Alvares'  straight  and  clear  mind  loyalty  to  Queen 
Leonor,  who  was  held  to  have  forfeited  loyalty,  could  not 
weigh  for  an  instant  against  his  love  of  an  independent 
Portugal.  To  secure  that,  he  said,  he  would  fight  against  his 
own  father.  Against  his  brother  he  did  fight,  and  no  suspicion 
of  the  loyalty  of  the  Constable,  not  long  out  of  his  teens,  could 
be  instilled  into  the  mind  of  his  friend  Joao  I,  who  rewarded 
him  for  his  victories  with  well-nigh  half  his  kingdom.  The 
first  great  Portuguese  victory  was  at  Trancoso  in  July,  1385, 
followed  on  the  15th  of  August  by  the  battle  near  Aljubarrota, 
in  which  the  flower  of  the  Spanish  nobility,  and  of  Portuguese 
nobles  fighting  on  the  side  of  Castille,  fell.  It  was  a  victory  of 
King  and  people  over  the  nobility.  King  Juan  fled  in  haste 

8— (2404) 


114  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

to  Santarem,  and  thence  to  Spain.  Nun'  Alvares  in  October 
won  another  great  victory  at  Valverde,  and  after  that  there 
was  little  more  fear  of  serious  Spanish  invasion.  Fighting, 
however,  went  on  at  intervals,  till  a  truce  in  1389  was  followed 
by  a  more  permanent  truce  in  1400,  and  by  a  treaty  of  peace 
in  141 1,  after  the  death  of  King  Juan's  successor,  Henrique  III. 
The  last  great  achievement  of  King  Joao  I's  great  reign  was  the 
conquest  of  Ceuta.  The  expedition  was  saddened  at  its 
outset  by  the  death  of  the  Queen,  of  plague,  a  few  days  before 
the  King  and  his  three  older  sons,  Duarte,  Pedro,  Henrique, 
sailed  on  their  crusade  against  the  Moors  (1415).  The  expedi- 
tion was  completely  successful.  Ceuta  was  taken  immediately 
owing  to  the  eager  heroism  of  the  Princes  and  their  Portuguese 
followers.  This  was  the  first  of  Portugal's  great  deeds  beyond 
the  seas.  The  last  years  of  King  Joao  I's  reign  were  peaceful, 
and  when  he  died  in  1433,  two  years  after  the  death  of  his 
life-long  friend,  Nun'  Alvares,  Portugal  was  as  independent  as 
Spain  or  any  other  country,  and  her  alliance  with  England 
already  ancient  and  secure. 

King  Duarte  (1433-8)  himself  married  an  Aragonese  princess, 
another  Leonor.  In  spite  of  his  good  sense  and  great  qualities, 
in  spite  of  his  personal  courage  amply  shown 
Duarte.  in  the  expedition  against  Ceuta,  his  combina- 
tion of  king  and  philosopher  was  not  entirely 
successful.  He  had  the  weakness  to  yield  to  the  fiery  deter- 
mination of  his  brother,  Infante  Henrique,  to  send  a  force 
against  Tangiers.  The  expedition  ended  disastrously  (had  it 
been  a  success  there  would,  of  course,  be  no  talk  of  King 
Duarte's  weakness).  After  thirty-seven  days  of  heroic  fight- 
ing against  vast  numbers  of  Moors,  the  Portuguese  were  forced 
to  surrender.  In  return  for  permission  to  sail  back  without 
their  arms,  to  Portugal,  they  agreed  to  give  up  Ceuta,  and  the 
Infante  Fernando  remained  as  hostage  and  died  a  prisoner 
after  many  months  of  fearful  ill-treatment.  His  brother, 
King  Duarte,  had  died  before  him,  leaving  his  wife,  Queen 
Leonor,  Regent  for  the  infant  King. 


Historical  Survey  115 

Another  of  his  brothers,  the  Infante  Pedro,  soon  became 
Regent,  while  another,  the  Infante  Henrique,  now  known  as 
the    Navigator,    was    preparing    Portugal's 
Affonso  V.      future  glory  with  a  faith  and  persistency  rarely 
surpassed.     At   his   bidding   and   under   his 
direction,  Portuguese  mariners  crept  down  the  west  coast  of 
Africa,  and  at  his  death  in  1460  he  had  cause  to  feel  that  his 
labours  had  not  been  in  vain,  and  that  a  rich  field  for  the 
merchant   and  the  missionary  would  yearly  extend.    The 
discovery  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  followed,  and  in  1497-9, 
when  Vasco  da  Gama,  rounding  the  Cape,  crossed  from  East 
Africa  to  India,  and  returned  in  triumph  to  Lisbon,  this 
successful  enterprise  was  felt  to  be,  and  indeed  was,  the  crown 
and  natural  outcome  of  Prince  Henry's  life-work.    He  was 
the  last  of  that  noble  galaxy  of  brothers.    When  the  Infante 
Pedro,  answering  to  the  wishes  of  a  great  part  of  the  kingdom, 
and  especially  of  the  people  of  Lisbon,  assumed  the  Regency, 
he  ruled  firmly  and  wisely  (1438-47),  and  did  not,  therefore, 
make  the  fewer  enemies.     Queen  Leonor  died  in  1445,  and 
two  years  later  the  young  King  took  power  into  his  own  hands. 
No  sooner  had  Pedro  ceased  to  be  Regent  than  his  enemies 
combined  for  his  ruin,  and  the  King,  his  nephew,  and  son-in- 
law,  an  amiable  but  weak  young  man,  was  induced  to  listen 
to  their  accusations.     The  Infante  Pedro  was  banished  from 
the  Court,  and  was  given  no  opportunity  of  defending  himself. 
The  matter  finally  came  to  open  war,  and  the  King's  large 
army  met  the  Infante  Pedro's  small  force  at  Alfarrobeira  in 
May,  1449.    The  Infante  was  killed  in  a  preliminary  skirmish. 
Affonso    V   (1438-81),   gifted   with   a   noble   and   generous 
character,  as  king  proved  at  once  weak  and  obstinate.    An 
extant  letter  from  him  to  the  historian  Azurara  shows  him  in 
a  very  pleasant  light.     In  his  external  policy  he  had  two 
chief  aims,  to  conquer  North-West  Africa,  and  to  make  good 
his  claim  to  the  Crown  of  Castille.     As  to  the  first  he  obtained 
some  measure  of  success,  so  that  flatterers  called  him  the 
"  African."     Alcacer  was  taken  in   1458,  Tangiers  thirteen 


116  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

years  later.  But  the  last  ten  years  of  his  reign  had  no  victories 
to  show.  He  espoused  the  cause  of  Juana,  daughter  of  Henry 
IV,  King  of  Castille,  making  it  his  own  by  betrothing  himself 
to  her  (a  excellente  Senhora).  War  with  Castille  followed, 
and  he  was  defeated  at  the  battle  of  Toro  (1476).  He  was  not 
more  successful  in  his  attempt  to  obtain  the  support  of  France. 
In  his  visit  to  the  French  Court  he  was  a  puppet  in  the  hands 
of  the  astute  Louis  XI,  and  when  he  returned  to  Portugal  it 
was  felt  that  he  had  failed  doubly.  Indeed,  he  had  renounced 
the  throne  and  decided  to  retire  to  a  convent,  but  he  now 
reassumed  his  position  as  king,  although  the  real  power  and 
direction  of  affairs  remained  in  the  vigorous  and  able  hands 
of  his  son  Joao.  Before  Affonso  V  died,  Joao  had  effected  a 
peace  with  Castille  (1479),  by  which  the  hapless  Juana  was 
shut  up  in  a  convent,  at  Santarem. 

Affonso  V  had  always  been  man  first  and  king  by  an  after- 
thought, his  son  Joao  II  was  always  king  first.  In  his  reign 
(1481-95)  the  royal  power  was  strengthened 
Joio  II.  and  made  supreme  in  Portugal.  This  was  in- 
deed the  outstanding  feature  of  the  rule  of  the 
"  Perfect  Prince,"  in  whose  strong  hands  Portugal  reached  the 
height  of  her  strength,  though  not  of  her  glory.  The  most 
powerful  Portuguese  subject  was  the  Duke  of  Braganza,  who 
owned  a  third  of  Portugal,  or  more.  The  founder  of  this  house 
was  an  illegitimate  son  of  Joao  I,  married  to  the  daughter  of 
Nun'  Alvares,  who  had  received  from  the  King  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  towns  and  territories  conquered  by  his  skill  and 
energy  in  battle.  The  Duke  of  Braganza  was  now  arrested  by 
Joao  II  and  executed  at  Evora  as  a  friend  of  Castille,  but  essen- 
tially as  a  too  powerful  vassal  of  Portugal.  Part  of  the  nobility, 
disaffected  owing  to  the  King's  strenuous  proceedings,  and  the 
Bishop  of  Evora  involved  the  Duke  of  Vizeu  in  a  plot  to  de- 
throne his  brother-in-law,  although,  as  it  proved,  he  would 
have  become  king  in  the  natural  course  of  events  a  few  years 
later.  King  Joao  II's  son,  Prince  Affonso,  married  in  1490  to 
Isabel,  daughter  of  the  Catholic  Kings,  died  in  the  following 


Historical  Survey  117 

year  at  the  age  of  sixteen.  The  Duke  of  Vizeu's  plot  was 
betrayed  to  the  King,  who  acted  with  his  usual  energy  and 
decision.  His  brother-in-law  he  stabbed  to  death  with  his  own 
hand.  The  other  principal  conspirators  were  sentenced  to 
imprisonment  or  death.  The  title  of  the  Duke  of  Vizeu  was 
extinguished,  but  his  younger  brother,  Manoel,  became  heir  to 
the  throne  with  the  title  of  Duke  of  Beja. 

As  King  Manoel,  the  Fortunate,  he  ruled  over  Portugal  for 
twenty-six  years  (1495-1521),  a  period  which  will  always  be 
considered  the  greatest  of  Portugal's  pros- 
Manoel  I.  perity  and  glory,  as  well  as  the  golden  age  of 
her  literature  (although  her  greatest  poet, 
Camoes,  was  unborn  when  King  Manoel  died) .  The  fruits  of 
the  labours  of  the  Infante  Henrique,  of  King  Joao  II,  of  a  long 
line  of  glorious  or  obscure  heroes  and  adventurers  and  adminis- 
trators from  the  time  of  King  Diniz  now  fell  into  the  mouth 
of  King  Manoel.  Compared  with  his  predecessor  on  the 
throne,  he  has  been  aptly  described  as  an  orange-tree  succeed- 
ing an  oak.  But  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  he  was  without 
energy,  witness  the  speed  with  which  he  prepared  to  rescue 
Arzilla  in  1508,  and  the  fact  that  he  would  be  up  and  at  work 
when  most  of  his  subjects  were  still  asleep  in  their  beds.  But 
what  astonishes  and  must  ever  astonish  the  world  is  the 
mighty  achievement  of  this  tiny  kingdom.  The  series  of 
wars  with  Castille,  of  adventures  along  the  west  coast  of  Africa, 
of  battles  in  Morocco,  of  internal  troubles,  might  seem  to 
justify  and  explain  a  period  of  complete  inactivity.  Yet  in 
the  years  that  followed  the  Portuguese  conquered  not  one 
country  or  one  province,  but  a  whole  world. 

To  tell  the  wonderful  story  of  the  Portuguese  discoveries,  cul- 
minating in  the  rounding  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  by  Bar- 
Portugal  's       tolomeu  Diaz  and  the  voyage  of  a  handful  of 
World-         Portuguese  under  Vasco  da  Gama,  and  how 
Empire.        the    portugUese    Empire   in   the    East    was 
defended  by  such  heroes    as   Duarte  Pacheco  Pereira,  and 
strengthened    and    extended    by    the    indomitable    Affonso 


118  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

d' Albuquerque,  would  fill  volumes.  The  tiny  Portuguese 
nation  provided  men  to  do  these  deeds,  and  also  historians  to 
record  them  worthily.  Sometimes  the  hero  was  himself  author, 
and  wrote  with  a  directness  and  vigour  of  style  scarcely 
ever  attained  by  Portuguese  writers  of  to-day.  Only  half  a 
century  elapsed  between  the  voyage  of  Vasco  da  Gama  and 
the  death  of  D.  Joao  de  Castro  in  India  in  1548,  and  into  this 
brief  period  is  crowded  a  bewildering  array  of  fighters,  writers, 
poets,  historians,  administrators,  men  of  science,  to  such  an 
extent  that  no  brief  summary  of  Portuguese  history  can  even 
record  their  names.  But  large  tracts  of  Asia  and  Africa  now 
acknowledged  Portugal's  sway,  and  all  the  kings  of  the  East 
sent  costly  presents,  gold  and  spices  and  precious  stones,  to 
their  suzerain  in  the  West.  The  name  and  fame  of  the 
Portuguese  extended  throughout  all  lands  in  mixed  fear  and 
admiration.  Foreign  adventurers  and  merchants  and  men 
of  curiosity  and  learning  flocked  to  Lisbon,  which  for  a  brief 
space  appeared  as  the  true  centre  of  the  universe.  The  Pope 
and  Cardinals  in  Rome  gazed  in  wonder  at  the  unprecedented 
gifts  from  the  East  sent  by  the  King  of  Portugal.  But  not 
in  the  East  only  were  great  deeds  performed  at  this  time  by 
the  Portuguese,  for  in  North- West  Africa  D.  Joao  de  Menezes 
won  undying  glory  by  his  brilliant  military  achievements, 
taking  Larache,  Azamor  (1519),  and  other  towns.  When  we 
read  that  in  a  single  day — in  the  defence  of  a  fortress  they 
were  building  in  North  Africa — 1,200  Portuguese  are  said 
to  have  fallen,  and  know  that  this  was  a  comparatively 
unimportant  link  in  the  huge  chain  of  empire  which  Affonso 
d'Albuquerque  (the  fear  of  whose  name  penetrated  far  into 
China)  was  even  then  (1515)  forging  in  India,  we  are  not 
surprised  that  agriculture  in  Portugal  was  neglected  and  that 
two  generations  later  King  Sebastian  could  only  collect  a  force 
of  9,000  Portuguese  to  accompany  him  to  Africa.  Rather  we 
marvel  how  Portugal  could  continue  so  long  to  sustain  efforts 
so  many  and  so  various.  For  a  skilful  historian  the  story  of 
Portugal  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  affords  an 


Historical  Survey  119 

epic  subject  more  wonderful  than  perhaps  any  in  history — 
except  that  of  the  events  exactly  four  centuries  later  which 
welded  together  another  empire  and  again  saw  all  the  Princes 
of  India  sending  gifts  to  the  West.  And  the  materials  to  the 
hand  of  such  an  historian  are  fascinating  and  abundant,  both 
published  and  manuscript.  Unfortunately  the  age  of  King 
Manoel  did  not  provide  a  fresh  crop  of  heroes  equal  to  those 
who  had  grown  to  manhood  under  King  Joao  II,  and  when  he 
died  in  1521  the  disquieting  symptoms  were  many.  In 
Portugal  the  real  prosperity  had  been  replaced  by  a  garish 
and  deceptive  luxury,  and  the  old  simple  pleasures  and  jollity 
had  vanished  with  the  old  austerity  of  life.  In  the  East  the 
mighty  compelling  arm  of  Affonso  d' Albuquerque  had  sunk 
to  rest  in  1515.  King  Manoel  had  married  as  his  first  wife 
Isabel,  daughter  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella.  She  died  in  child- 
birth, and  their  son  Miguel  died  two  years  later  in  1500. 
Had  he  lived  he  would  have  succeeded  not  only  to  the  throne 
and  mighty  empire  of  his  father,  King  Manoel,  but  to  the 
throne  and  mighty  empire  of  the  Catholic  Kings.  Such  a 
load  of  empire  would  seem  too  great  for  the  shoulders  of  one 
ruler  to  bear,  and  in  the  very  year  of  the  infant  prince's  death 
the  Portuguese  Pedro  Alvares  Cabral's  discovery,  or  redis- 
covery, of  Brazil  added  another  huge  item  to  the  burden  and 
the  glory. 

King  Manoel  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Joao  III  (1521-57), 
born  in   1502.     To  the  oak  and  the  orange  succeeded  the 

cypress.     But  the  gloom  of  his  reign  has  been 
Joao  III.        much  exaggerated,  and  the  King's  character 

wilfully  distorted  by  the  historians,  who  have 
described  him  as  a  bigot  and  a  witless  idiot.  King  Joao  was 
no  fool,  and  had  an  intelligent  love  of  letters,  and,  if  the  Court 
was  now  less  given  up  to  pleasure  than  in  the  reign  of  his 
predecessor,  we  still  read  of  seroes  continuing  at  the  palace 
during  several  nights.  But  the  power  of  Rome  in  Portugal 
certainly  grew  in  his  reign,  and  a  succession  of  personal 
sorrows  increased  his  devotion  to  religion.  About  fifteen 


120  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

years  after  his  accession  many  of  his  nearest  relations  died, 
and,  although  a  son  and  heir  to  his  throne  survived  till  1554, 
his  death  in  that  year  came  to  crown  the  many  griefs  of  this 
reign.  This  precocious  boy,  the  Infante  Joao,  had  already 
won  some  fame  as  a  patron  of  letters,  and  was  married  when 
he  died  at  the  age  of  sixteen.  His  death  was  one  of  the 
greatest  misfortunes  of  Portuguese  history,  from  which  indeed 
the  goddess  of  Good  Fortune  seems  to  have  departed  in  the 
first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  leaving  in  her  place  a  poor 
Mofina  Mendes,  personification  of  ill  luck.  King  Joao  III 
and  his  brother  Henrique  had  worked  persistently  to  introduce 
the  Inquisition  into  Portugal,  and  the  Company  of  Jesuits, 
destined  to  do  excellent  work  in  education  at  home  and  in  the 
colonies  overseas,  also  came  to  Portugal  during  his  reign. 

Prince  Joao's  infant  son,  Sebastian,  born  in   1554,  was 
educated  by  priests  and  Jesuits,  and  in  1562  his  grand-uncle 

Henrique,  priest  first  and  prince  afterwards, 
Sebastian.       succeeded  Queen  Catharina  as  Regent,  and 

continued  to  rule  till  the  King  came  of  age 
(14)  in  1568.  King  Sebastian  reigned  in  person  for  ten  years. 
His  character  and  capacities  have  been  much  discussed.  To  a 
love  of  sport  and  all  dangerous  enterprises,  he  united  a  deep 
religiousness,  instilled  into  him  by  his  education,  and  a  con- 
suming desire  to  extend  the  Christian  faith  and  win  personal 
glory  by  a  victory  over  the  Moors  in  Africa.  To  this  end  the 
ten  years  of  his  reign  were  directed,  and  in  1578  he  sailed  from 
Lisbon  (25th  June),  with  a  force  of  about  14,000,  Portuguese 
and  foreigners,  including  members  of  all  the  noblest  families 
in  Portugal.  Surrounded  by  a  vastly  superior  number  of 
Moors  in  the  battle  of  Alcacer  Kebir  (4th  August,  1578),  the 
majority  of  the  Portuguese  were  slain  or  taken  prisoners. 
The  King  himself,  a  Don  Quixote  before  Don  Quixote  was 
born,  died  fighting  valiantly.  His  body  was  recovered  later 
and  sent  to  Spain  and  thence  to  Portugal,  where  it  was  buried 
in  the  convent  of  Belem,  built  by  his  great-grandfather,  King 
Manoel.  Yet  in  the  confusion  of  that  battle  many  rumours 


Historical  Survey  121 

arose  and  the  people  in  Portugal  never  believed  in  his  death, 
a  fact  which  occasioned  various  episodes  in  the  following  year, 
and  was  the  basis  of  a  kind  of  religious  faith  which  lasted  on 
into  the  nineteenth  century.  Not  quite  two  centuries  had 
passed  since  the  battle  of  Aljubarrota,  and  into  that  period 
the  Portuguese  had  crowded  a  history  more  brilliant  than  that 
of  any  other  country.  Now  it  seemed  as  if  the  ship  had  gone 
by,  leaving  only  a  wake  of  troubled  water. 

Sebastiao  was  succeeded    by    his    great-uncle  Henrique, 

Cardinal    at    33,  and    King    at    66,    who,    however,   only 

survived   him  for  a  few  months,   dying  in 

Henrique.        1580.     His  last  days  were  embittered  by  the 

question  of  the  succession.    Seven  pretenders 

claimed  the  Crown  of  Portugal,  and  chiefly  the  Duke  of 

Braganza,  in  his  wife's  right,  Antonio,  Prior  of  Crato,  the 

Lisbon  people's  favourite,  and  King  Philip  II  of  Spain. 

The  right  seems  to  have  been  doubtful,  but  the  might  was 

on  the  side  of  King  Philip,  who  made  no  secret  of  his  resolution 

to  win  the  kingdom  by  force  if  it  were  not 

PhSiPain  °f  &iven  to  him  willingly.  ManY  of  the  Portu- 
guese nobility  were  on  his  side,  and  the 
King  Cardinal  was  finally  induced  to  recognise  his  claim.  But 
the  people  strongly  resented  the  intrusion  of  the  Spaniard, 
and  the  Prior  of  Crato  found  no  difficulty  in  having  himself 
proclaimed  King  at  Santarem.  When,  however,  King  Philip's 
army,  under  the  Duke  of  Alba,  arrived  at  Setubal,  and  after 
taking  Cascaes,  advanced  on  Lisbon,  Antonio's  forces,  encamped 
outside  the  capital,  melted  away — they  consisted  of  untrained 
citizens  for  the  most  part — and  Antonio  himself  fled  into 
Lisbon  and  thence  to  Oporto  and  Vianna  in  the  North.  From 
Vianna  do  Castello  he  escaped  in  disguise  by  sea,  accompanied 
by  the  Bishop  of  Guarda  and  the  Conde  do  Vimioso  (October, 
1580).  He  did  not,  however,  yet  leave  Portugal,  remaining 
disguised  there  and  even  at  times  at  Lisbon  till  June,  1581, 
when  he  retired  to  France.  Philip  II  had  entered  Portugal  by 
Elvas,  and  was  received  as  king  without  further  resistance, 


122  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

making  a  solemn  entry  into  Lisbon,  the  fourth  king  of  Portugal 
in  the  last  three  years.  A  French  fleet  was  sent  to  the  Azores 
in  favour  of  Antonio,  but  was  defeated.  He  made  a  last 
fruitless  effort  in  1589  in  combination  with  Drake,  who  took 
the  town  of  Cascaes.  There  was  no  support  forthcoming  in 
Portugal,  and  the  Prior  de  Crato  returned  to  France,  and  died 
there  a  few  years  later.  If  Philip  II  expected  now  to  rule  over 
Portugal  in  peace  he  had  mistaken  the  character  of  his  new 
subjects.  Antonio  was  dead,  King  Sebastian  dead  and  buried 
at  Belem,  but  in  the  wishes  and  thoughts  of  the  people  King 
Sebastian  was  alive  and  might  be  expected  to  return  from  one 
day  to  another.  Pretenders  accordingly  abounded  and  gave 
considerable  trouble  ;  one,  especially,  who  appeared  in  Italy, 
bore  so  striking  a  resemblance  to  Sebastian,  and  displayed 
knowledge  of  matters  which  only  Sebastian  could,  apparently, 
have  known,  that  to  this  day  some  believe  him  to  have  been 
the  real  king. 

But  Portugal  was  now  definitely  wedded  to  Castille  for  the 

next  sixty  years.     Spain's  enemies  became  her  enemies,  and 

her  great  colonial  empire  lay  at  their  mercy. 

Spanish         Before  the  end  of  the  century  the  Dutch  were 

(Phm^IMV,     in  the  East'  and'  like  rats  in  cheese>  battened 
1580-1640).'     on  the  possessions  of  the  Portuguese.     A  few 

years  later  the  English  followed.  All  the 
old  daring  and  enterprise  of  the  Portuguese  mariners  of  the 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  seemed  to  have  fallen  from 
them  like  the  cloak  of  Elijah.  Their  ships  were  used  in  the 
service  of  Spain,  and  their  own  overseas  dominions  left 
unprotected.  Lisbon,  accustomed  to  see  the  fleets  depart 
and  come  in  traffics  and  discoveries  from  the  East,  now  watched 
the  building  of  the  invincible  Armada  against  her  old  ally 
England.  But  Philip  II's  hand  was  a  strong  hand,  and  not 
lightly  to  be  shaken  off  by  an  exhausted  people.  Under  the 
rule  of  his  successors  it  was  otherwise.  Hollow  pomp  took 
the  place  of  real  power,  and  the  concentration  of  affairs  in  the 
King's  hands,  or  in  those  of  his  minister,  required  men  of  more 


Historical  Survey  123 

insight  and  astuteness  than  Philip  IV  (Philip  III  of  Portugal) 
or  the  Count-Duke  Olivares  possessed.  In  Portugal  dis- 
content was  widespread.  The  people  had  never  willingly 
accepted  Spanish  rule,  and  the  increased  burden  of  taxation 
did  not  lessen  their  dislike.  The  nobles,  even  if  they  were  not 
fired  by  the  misfortunes  of  their  country,  were  enraged  by 
slights  inflicted  upon  themselves.  Margaret,  Duchess  of 
Mantua,  had  been  appointed  Regent  of  Portugal  in  1634. 
The  real  power  was  in  the  hands  of  Miguel  de  Vasconcellos, 
who  concentrated  in  his  own  person  all  the  hatred  of  the 
Portuguese  for  the  Spaniard. 

In  1640,  forty  nobles,  sure  of  the  support  of  the  people,  and 

encouraged  by  the  enthusiastic  approbation  of  the  Archbishop 

of  Lisbon,  decided  that  the  hour  had  come 

Restoration        to  throw  off  the  hated  voke-     The  Duke  of 
Braganza's  agent,  Joao  Pinto  Ribeiro,  was 

the  heart  and  soul  of  the  conspiracy.  The  secret  was  well  kept. 
Fu  cosa  meravigliosa  il  concerto,  says  an  Italian  historian. 
The  Countess  of  Atouguia,  Filippa  de  Vilhena,  who  had 
knowledge  of  the  plot,  herself  armed  her  two  young  sons  to 
take  part  in  it  on  the  1st  of  December.  As  nine  o'clock 
struck  that  morning  the  conspirator  nobles  forced  their  way 
into  the  palace  and  proclaimed  the  King,  Joao  IV,  Duke  of 
Braganza. 

He  was  the  grandson  of  the  Duchess  Catharina,  one  of  the 
claimants  to  the  Portuguese  throne  on  the  death  of  the 

Cardinal  King.     Spain,     with    burdens    not 
Joao  IV.        less  great  than  her  vast  resources,  and  the 

revolt  of  Catalonia  on  her  hands,  was  unable 
to  do  more  for  the  moment  than  encourage  plots  in  Portugal 
against  the  new  King.  The  most  serious  of  them  was  a  con- 
spiracy to  kill  the  King,  of  which  the  Archbishop  of  Braga 
was  the  organiser  in  1641.  The  Vatican  gave  its  support  to 
Spain  and  connived  at  this  conspiracy.  King  Joao  IV  was 
too  deeply  religious  to  take  the  opportunity  to  free  the  Church 
— and  State — in  Portugal  from  the  supremacy  of  Rome,  and  his 


124  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

foreign  policy  generally  was  not  marked  by  the  strength  which 
the  circumstances  required.  His  foreign  ministers  had 
extraordinarily  difficult  tasks.  In  the  year  after  the  Restora- 
tion, treaties  were  made  with  France  and  Holland,  and  the 
alliance  with  England  was  renewed.  But  the  custom  to 
plunder  Portugal's  overseas  territories  was  now  inveterate, 
and  she  derived  little  profit  from  her  new  allies,  although  a 
common  cause  united  them  against  Spain.  The  Dutch  gave 
the  Portuguese  fair  words  in  Europe  and  hard  blows  in  her 
colonies,  and  Portugal  was  powerless  to  do  more  than  protest 
with  words  against  such  double  dealing.  Actual  war  between 
Spain  and  Portugal  began  in  1643,  and  continued  desultorily 
till  1646,  when  it  was  broken  off  till  the  death  of  King  John  IV 
in  1656.  King  Joao's  brother,  the  Infante  Duarte,  had  been 
arrested  by  order  of  Philip  II  as  soon  as  news  came  of  the 
Restoration  in  1640,  and  was  subjected  to  a  process  of  slow 
murder  till  he  died  in  prison  in  1649,  a  second  Infante  Fer- 
nando, only  that  his  gaoler  was  no  prince  of  Fez  but  the 
Catholic  King. 

King  Joao's  eldest  son,  Theodosio,  who  had  shown  great 

promise,    also    died    before    him,    aged    nineteen    and    the 

second  son,  Affonso,  succeeded  at  the  age  of 

Affonso  VI.  thirteen.  Although  completely  uneducated 
and  incapable  of  affairs,  he  wrested  the  power 
out  of  his  mother's  hands  six  years  later.  Affonso  VI  is  said 
to  have  been  more  at  home  in  the  company  of  grooms  than 
in  that  of  statesmen,  but  fortunately  at  the  beginning  of  his 
reign  he  had  an  affection  for  a  statesman  of  strong  and  wise 
views,  the  Conde  de  Castello  Melhor,  and  allowed  himself  to 
be  guided  by  his  counsels.  There  seems  no  reason  to  think 
that  he  would  not  have  continued  to  rely  on  ministers  as 
excellent,  and  in  that  case  his  reign  might  have  ended  as 
prosperously  as  it  began.  But  dissensions  at  Court  deprived 
him  first  of  Castello  Melhor,  then  of  his  capable  successor, 
Antonio  Sousa  de  Macedo,  and  without  them  he  was  helpless. 
The  Queen,  a  daughter  of  the  Due  de  Nemours,  insisted  on 


Historical  Survey  125 

taking  part,  and  no  minor  part,  in  affairs,  was  determined,  in 
fact,  to  govern  Portugal  in  the  interests  of  Louis  XIV.  The 
strife  between  her  and  Castello  Melhor  was  open  and  con- 
tinuous till  the  Secretary  of  State  fell.  The  King's  brother, 
the  Infante  Pedro,  who  must  have  known  better  than  most 
how  the  country  would  gain  if  King  Affonso  had  a  wise 
minister  at  his  elbow,  supported  the  cause  of  the  Queen. 
He  forced  Sousa  de  Macedo  to  flee  from  the  palace  to  save  his 
life,  and  when  the  King  was  thus  left  defenceless,  obliged  him 
to  resign  (November,  1667)  and  proceeded  to  marry  the 
Queen. 

He  did  not  himself  assume  the  title  of  King  but  used  that 
of  "  Governor  "  until  the  death  of  the  King,  who  had  been 

sent  to  the  island  of  Terceira  and  then  brought 
Pedro  II.        to    Cintra,    where    he    died    in    1683.     (The 

Queen,  his  former  wife,  died  in  the  same  year.) 
During  these  internal  affairs  events  had  happened  which  were 
of  vast  importance  for  Portugal.  The  war  with  Spain  had  at 
first  been  favourable  to  Spain,  but  three  years  after  Affonso  VI 
came  to  the  throne  the  Spanish  were  decisively  defeated  at 
Elvas,  and  four  years  later,  in  1663,  the  Portuguese  under  the 
leadership  of  the  Count  of  Schomberg,  achieved  the  victory 
of  Ameixial,  by  which  Portugal  really  established  her  inde- 
pendence. The  capture  of  Elvas  and  the  victory  of  Montes 
Glares  followed.  These  were  good  answers  to  the  exclusion 
of  Portugal  from  the  peace  between  Louis  XIV  and  Spain 
in  1659.  The  Restoration  of  Charles  II  brought  about  renewed 
relations  of  friendliness  between  England  and  Portugal. 
A  fresh  treaty  was  signed  between  the  two  countries  in  May, 
1661,  and  Englishmen  (as  well  as  Frenchmen)  fought  at 
Ameixial.  Negotiations  for  peace  with  Holland  began  in 
the  same  year,  and  were  brought  to  a  successful  issue  in  1662, 
although,  owing  to  new  conflicts  in  India,  the  Portuguese  and. 
Dutch  were  not  really  at  peace  till  1669.  Finally,  in  1666, 
negotiations  for  peace  were  carried  on  between  Spain  and 
Portugal.  They  were,  however,  broken  off,  and  in  1667  a 


126  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

treaty  was  signed,  not  between  Portugal  and  Spain,  but  between 
Portugal  and  France.     However,  in  1668,  the  war  with  Spain, 
which  had  lasted  for  over  a  quarter  of  a  century,  ended,  and 
peace   was   concluded   between   the   two   countries.    Ceuta 
remained  in  the  hands  of  the  Spanish.    This  was  unhappily 
the  fate  of  many  of  Portugal's  overseas  possessions.     She 
lost  or  pawned  one  jewel  after  another  till  her  splendid 
heirlooms  were  reduced,  not  indeed  to  insignificance,  but  to 
insignificance  in  comparison  with  their  former  worth.     She 
did  at  least  succeed  in  recovering  Brazil  from  the  Dutch. 
Pedro  II,  who  ruled  as  Regent  from  1656  to  1683,  and  as  King 
from  1683  to  1706,  was  little  better  educated  than  his  unfortu- 
nate brother,  but  he  proved  a  wise  and  capable  statesman 
with  the  good  of  his  country  constantly  at  heart.     If  personal 
ambition  seemed  to  mark  the  first  events  of  his  public  life, 
he  redeemed  these  faults  by  a  real  devotion  to  Portuguese 
interests,  and  under  his  rule  Portugal  again  attained  a  degree 
of  importance  which  was  clearly  shown  at  the  beginning  of  the 
War  of  the  Spanish  Succession,  when  all  the  European  Powers 
eagerly  sought  her  assistance.     Portugal  at  first  maintained 
her  neutrality,  and,  not  for  the  last  time  in  her  history,  bobbed 
and  wavered  like  a  cork  between  conflicting  waves.     But 
before  Pedro  II  died  he  had  set  the  seal  on  his  wisdom  by 
openly  throwing  in  his  lot  with  England  and  her  Allies  (May, 
1703).    As  events  proved,  the  other  course  would  have  meant 
Portugal's  ruin.     The  same  year,  1703,  witnessed  the  signing 
of   an   important    and   much   discussed   commercial   treaty 
between  Great  Britain  and  Portugal,  known  as  the  Methuen 
Treaty  (27th  December).     It  provided  that  Portuguese  wines 
should  be  admitted  to  Great  Britain  at  reduced  rates  (a  third 
less  than  those  upon  French  wines),  and  that  as  regards  the 
prohibition  of  the  importation  of  manufactured  woollen  goods 
into  Portugal  an  exception  should  be  made  in  the  case  of  Great 
Britain. 

Joao  V  was  but  seventeen  when  he  began  his  reign  of  forty- 
four  years  in  1706.    His  noble  qualities  and  lofty  aims  were 


Historical  Survey  127 

marred  by  the  grandiose  taste  of  the  time  and  by  an  unwise  imi- 
tation of  the  Roi  Soleil.  He  wished  to  be  the  Portuguese  Louis 
XIV.   He  lavishly  encouraged  art  and  science, 
Joao  V.         and  took  personal  and  intelligent  interest  in 
their  progress.      He  acted  generally  with  a 
magnificence  befitting  a  lord  of  all  Europe,  or  at  least  of  all 
the  possessions  in  the  East  that  had  once  been  Portugal's, 
whereas  his  treasury  was   supplied  mainly  by  gold  from 
Brazil.    In  the  matter  of  buildings,  especially,  his  extravagance 
was  unbridled,  and  two  of  them,  the  Convent  of  Mafra  and  the 
Alcantara  Aqueduct,  still  excite  wonder  and  admiration.     It 
was  all  very  splendid,  and  very  unwise  when  agriculture  at 
home  and  the  development  of  the  colonies  abroad  as  well  as 
a  fleet  to  maintain  them  required  every  available  penny.    The 
principal  event  of  his  reign  in  foreign  affairs  was  the  peace  of 
Utrecht,  signed  between  France,  Spain,  and  Portugal  in  1713. 
His  successor,   Joseph  I   (1750-77)   might  perhaps  have 
reigned  in  Portugal  as  a  Philip  IV  of  Spain,  and  been  known 
chiefly  for  his  love  of  the  theatre  had  he  not 
Joseph  I.        possessed  a  minister  far  wiser  and  abler  than 
Olivares.    This  minister,  Sebastiao  Jose  de 
Carvalho  e  Mello,  Marquez  de  Pombal,  born  in  1699,  had  been 
Ambassador  in  London  (1739-45),  and  then  at  Vienna  before 
becoming  Joseph  I's  Secretary  of  State.     A  terrible  event  on 
the  1st  of  November,  1755,  proved  his  decision,  calmness,  and 
energy.     At  9  a.m.  on  the  morning  of  that  day  an  earthquake 
of  unparalleled  severity  set  Lisbon  in  ruins  in  the  space  of  a 
quarter  of  an  hour.     Slighter  shocks  continued  to  terrify  the 
inhabitants— the  survivors  (between  25,000  and  30,000  had 
perished)  during   the   next   two   months.     That   the  conse- 
quences were  not  even  more  disastrous  and  that  the  population 
did  not  get  wholly  out  of  hand  was  due  to  one  man — Pombal. 
His  plan  for  rebuilding  the  city  was  not  carried  to  completion, 
but  the  regular  streets  and  squares  of  the  lower  part  of  Lisbon, 
the  Baixa,  still  attest  his  energy  and  foresight.  The  other  event 
with  which  his  name  is  chiefly  associated  is  the  expulsion  of 


128  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

the  Jesuits  whose  power  had  been  steadily  growing  in  Portugal 
and  her  colonies  for  the  last  two  centuries. 

To  this  end  Pombal's  great  energies  were  for  years  directed, 
although  he  found  time  in  some  measure  to  give  attention  to 

the  more  important   objects  of  agriculture, 
Pombal.        education,  etc.   An  attempt  on  the  King's  life 

on  the  3rd  of  September,  1758,  in  which  the 
King  was  wounded  in  the  arm,  gave  Pombal  his  opportunity 
against  the  Jesuits,  who  were  accused  of  being  the  promoters 
(impulsores)  of  the  plot.  First  the  Duke  of  Aveiro,  as  the  chief 
conspirator,  was  executed  with  horrible  cruelty,  worthy  of  the 
twentieth  century,  at  Belem.  The  Count  of  Atouguia  and  the 
family  of  Tavora,  the  Marquez  de  Tavora,  who  had  recently 
returned  from  ruling  Portuguese  India  as  Viceroy,  his  noble 
and  witty  wife  and  their  two  sons,  were  executed  with  him. 
They  were  probably  all  innocent.  Their  ashes  were  thrown  into 
the  Tagus,  their  arms  crossed  out  from  among  the  noble  fami- 
lies of  Portugal.  Then,  exactly  a  year  after  the  attempt,  the 
Jesuits  were  banished  from  Portugal  and  her  colonies  (3rd 
September,  1759),  and  their  goods  confiscated  (25th  February, 
1761).  Relations  between  Portugal  and  the  Vatican  were 
broken  off  and  were  not  resumed  until  1770  after  prolonged 
negotiations  and  the  death  of  Pope  Clement  XIII.  His  succes- 
sor, Clement  XIV,  extinguished  the  Society  of  Jesus  (August, 
1773).  Soon  after  King  Josh's  death  the  Marquez  de  Pombal 
retired  to  the  village  of  Pombal,  and  died  there  five  years  later 
in  1782,  in  his  83rd  year.  Ambitious  to  obtain  power  and 
merciless  in  its  use,  he  was,  undoubtedly,  a  man  of  strong  will 
and  enlightened  views  (he  condemned  slavery  and  protected 
the  Jews),  but  he  was  unattractive  and  often  unjust  in  his 
methods.  He  is  sometimes  spoken  of  as  if  he  were  the  only 
enlightened  ruler  of  the  eighteenth  century  in  Portugal, 
whereas  both  the  preceding  and  succeeding  reigns  were  marked 
by  a  steady  progress  and  culture.  King  Joao  V  gave  a  strong 
impulsion  to  literature  and  science  :  and  in  the  reign  of  King 
Jos6's  daughter,  Queen  Maria  I,  the  first  roads  worthy  of  the 


Historical  Survey  129 

name  were  built.  In  Pombal's  methods  we  may  perhaps  see  the 
germ  of  that  embitterment  in  Portugal  which  has  manifested 
itself  in  open  or  latent  civil  war  almost  ever  since. 

At  the  end  of  the  century  Portugal's  prosperity  stood  high. 
In  1792,  owing  to  the  Queen's  failing  reason,  her  son  Joao 
took  over  the  reins  of  government.  The 
Maria  I.  Queen  lived  till  1816,  and  the  Regent  then 
became  King  Joao  VI  till  his  death  ten  years 
later.  The  greater  part  of  his  rule,  as  Regent  and  King,  was 
fraught  with  a  series  of  disasters  which  from  prosperity  dashed 
Portugal  into  distress  and  despair,  and  threatened  her  very 
existence  as  a  nation.  The  two  causes  which  contributed 
most  to  her  ruin  were  the  invasion  of  Portugal  by  the  French 
armies  of  Napoleon,  and  the  declaration  of  the  independence 
of  Brazil,  with  which  Portugal  had  hitherto  had  a  monopoly 
of  trade.  Portugal,  as  England's  ally,  and  the  possessor  of 
excellent  seaports,  could  not  hope  to  escape  Napoleon's 
attention.  In  vain  she  attempted  to  maintain  her  neutrality, 
even  to  the  extent  of  wishing  to  close  her  harbours  against 
and  yet  remain  the  ally  of  Great  Britain.  But  the  treaty  of 
Fontainebleau  in  October,  1807,  between  Napoleon  and 
Godoy,  made  it  clear  that  whatever  hope  there  was  for  Por- 
tugal consisted  in  her  old  alliance.  By  this  treaty  Portugal 
was  to  be  divided  into  three  parts,  and  to  cease  to  be  an 
independent  country.  Junot  advanced  rapidly  upon  Lisbon, 
and  the  Regent  and  Royal  Family  set  sail  for  Brazil,  accom- 
panied by  many  of  the  noble  and  wealthy  families  of  Portugal. 
The  land  of  Portugal  itself  remained  for  years  the  scene  of 
warfare,  for,  although  the  convention  of  Cintra  in  1808  freed  it 
from  its  immediate  invaders,  other  armies  followed  and  were 
only  slowly  forced  northwards  by  the  genius  and  persistency 
of  Wellington. 

Wellington  himself  was  not  unpopular  in  Portugal,  but  with 
Beresford,  who  was  appointed  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
Portuguese  army  under  the  regency  which  governed  Portugal 
during  the  King's  absence  in  Brazil,  it  was  otherwise.  His 

9— (2404) 


130  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

punctual   discipline  was   hated,    and  a  growing  number  of 
Portuguese,  filled  with  the  ideas  of  the  French  Revolution, 

nourished  a  hope  of  freeing  their  country  from 
Joao  VI.        what  they  considered  the  undue  interference 

of  the  foreigner,  and  the  dominion  of 
what  appeared  to  be  obsolete  and  reactionary  methods.  In 
1817  a  plot  of  General  Gomes  Freire  de  Andrade  against 
Beresford  proclaimed  to  all  the  world  how  necessary  discipline 
was  for  Portugal.  The  plot  was  discovered,  and  Gomes 
Freire  was  executed.  But  three  years  later  a  revolution  broke 
out.  Beresford,  who  had  been  absent  in  Brazil,  was  refused 
a  landing  on  his  return,  the  Regency  was  overthrown,  and 
a  new  Constitution  drawn  up.  King  Joao  VI  returned  in  the 
following  year  from  Brazil.  In  1822  Brazil  pronounced  itself 
independent  and  chose  the  King's  popular  and  liberal-minded 
son,  Pedro,  to  be  its  ruler.  King  Joao  was  disposed  to  accept 
some  kind  of  constitution,  and  entrusted  the  Conde  de  Palmella 
with  the  drawing  up  of  a  constitution  less  radical  than  that 
of  1820.  He  had,  however,  counted  without  the  Queen 
Carlotta  and  his  son,  Dom  Miguel.  They  succeeded  in  over- 
throwing the  constitutional  party,  and  King  Joao  VI  was 
obliged  to  take  refuge  from  his  own  son  on  an  English  man- 
of-war  in  1823.  In  the  following  year,  with  the  help  of  the 
Powers,  he  succeeded  in  restoring  his  authority,  and  Dom 
Miguel  was  banished.  King  Joao  died  two  years  later. 

His  eldest  son,  Pedro,  as  Emperor  of  Brazil,  renounced 
the  throne  of  Portugal  in  favour  of  his  daughter,  Maria  II 

da  Gloria,  then  a  small  child.     In  the  hope 

d^Gloril  of  healing  the  strife  which  bade  fair  to  be  the 
irremediable  ruin  of  Portugal,  he  decided  that 
his  brother  Miguel  should  act  as  Regent  and  marry  his  niece, 
under  condition  of  swearing  to  accept  the  Constitution.  Dom 
Miguel  came  to  Portugal — o  rei  chegou,  o  rei  chegou — and 
under  cover  of  accepting  the  Constitution  had  himself  pro- 
claimed King  (in  June,  1828),  while  his  niece  and  betrothed 
wife  was  being  educated  in  Paris.  A  vigorous  persecution 


Historical  Survey  131 

of  Liberals  and  Constitutionalists  followed.  Thousands  of 
them  left  the  country  as  exiles,  others  suffered  cruel  torments 
in  prison,  and  others  were  executed  :  and  more  seeds  of  that 
mutual  hatred  and  vindictiveness  were  sown  between  Portu- 
guese and  Portuguese  which  a  century  was  unable  to  root  out. 
Pedro  returned  from  Brazil  to  fight  for  his  daughter's  throne, 
and  reached  the  Azores  in  the  spring  of  1832.  Two  years 
later  Miguel,  who  in  spite  of  all  his  faults  possessed  many  good 
qualities,  and  was  beloved  by  the  Portuguese  people,  was 
finally  defeated  at  Thomar  and  by  the  treaty  of  Evora  re- 
nounced the  throne.  King  Pedro  himself  died  in  the  same 
year.  In  1836  Queen  Maria  was  married  to  Prince  Ferdinand 
of  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.  Her  reign  was  embittered  by 
military  pronunciamentos  in  favour  of  a  more  radical  or  more 
moderate  constitution,  and,  in  1852,  a  year  before  the  Queen's 
death,  the  Duke  of  Saldanha  succeeded  in  imposing  a  con- 
stitution which  remained  in  force  for  some  years.  He  himself 
continued  to  be  the  make-weight  in  Portuguese  politics  until 
1871,  when  after  a  brief  term  of  office  he  was  overthrown  in 
turn  by  the  Conservatives  and  sent  as  Ambassador  to  London, 
where  he  died  in  1876. 

After  Queen  Maria's  death,  the  enlightened  and  art-loving 
King  Consort  Ferdinand  ruled  on  behalf  of  his  son,  Pedro  V. 

until  he  was  pronounced  to  be  of  age  in  1855. 
Pedro  V.        The  new  King  died  in  1861,  and  was  succeeded 

by  Luis  I  (1861-89),  during  whose  reign  the 
unpatriotic  strife  between  Liberal  and  Conservative  politi- 
cians, Progressistas  and  Regener  adores,  went  on  unabated. 

It  is  not  pleasant  to  dwell  on  the  fate  of  a 
Luiz  I.         country,  once  as  glorious  as  any  in  Europe, 

now  torn  and  harassed  by  party  feuds, 
personal  ambitions,  false  ideas  of  liberty,  artificial  and  purely 
formal  conceptions  of  Constitutionalism,  misgovernment 
and  corruption,  neglect,  indifference,  despair. 

Luiz  I  was  succeeded  in  1889  by  his  son,  Carlos  I,  whose 
reign  began  as  it  ended,  disastrously  for  Portugal.     In  the 


132  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

very  year  of  his  accession,  the  house  of  Braganza  was 
driven  from  Brazil,  which  declared  itself  a  Republic.  In  the 
following  year  a  colonial  question  between 
Carlos  I.  Great  Britain  and  Portugal  led  to  the  presen- 
tation of  an  ultimatum  by  Great  Britain, 
and  what  was  ignorantly  regarded  as  the  King's  weakness 
inspired  an  abortive  republican  rising  at  Oporto  in  1891. 
In  the  following  year  Portugal's  credit  was  laid  in  the  dust  by 
a  formal  declaration  of  bankruptcy.  The  events  of  these 
four  years  were  sufficient  to  disgust  anyone  with  the  business 
of  king.  The  King,  under  the  Constitution,  had  really  little 
power  to  interfere.  The  Queen,  Marie  Am61ie,  daughter  of 
the  Comte  de  Paris,  was  looked  upon  askance  as  a  friend 
of  the  religious  orders,  and  her  courage  and  charity  awakened 
no  response  of  chivalry  in  the  hearts  of  the  Portuguese.  The 
position  came  to  be  this  :  that  every  kind  of  support  was 
refused  to  the  Monarchy,  which  was  then  bitterly  criticised 
and  attacked  by  those  who,  had  they  supported  it  loyally, 
might  have  made  it  a  success.  It  was  "  a  Monarchy  without 
any  monarchists,"  said  King  Carlos. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

LITERATURE 

THE  Portuguese  have  reason  to  be  proud  of  their  literature, 
which,  though  it  does  not  abound  in  masterpieces  of  the  first 
order,  possesses  a  very  large  number  of  works, 
Theophilo       in  verse  and  prose,  of  conspicuous  merit  and 
Braga,  and      deserving  to  be  far  better  known,  both  in 
Michaelis       Portugal  and  abroad.     The  Portuguese  have 
de  Vasconcellos.  aroused  themselves  from  their  indifference  in 
this  respect.     Dr.  Theophilo  Braga  has  pro- 
duced an  immense  work  of  discovery  and  criticism.     Dona 
Carolina  Michaelis  de  Vasconcellos,  a  far  more  scholarly  critic, 
has,  during  the  last  forty  years,  carried  through  a  work  no  less 
immense  and  far  more  valuable  and  abiding.     Her  genius 
is  like  an  electric  torch  shedding  powerful  light  as  it  rests  in 
turn  on  each  of  the  great  Portuguese  writers,  and  illuminating 
by  the  way  all  the  nooks  and  crannies.     The  difference  between 
these,  the  two  great  authorities  on  Portuguese  literature,  is 
that  the  works  of  the  former  satisfy  no  one  but  himself,  those 
of  the  latter  everyone  but  herself.     And   there  are  many 
younger  workers  now   in  the   same  field   eager  to  discover, 
decipher,  print  and  re-edit  the  old  monuments  of  Portuguese 
literature. 

In  the  past  the  carelessness  has  been  such  that  several 
famous  works  which  were  in  all  probability  originally  Portu- 
guese, have  been  allowed  to  perish  utterly  or 
Treasures        to    survive    on^y    m    Spanish    translations. 
Amadis  of  Gaul  is  probably  one  of  these,  and 
another  masterpiece  claimed  wrongly  by  Spain  is  Palmeirim 
of  England,  by  Francisco  de  Moraes  Cabral,  in  the  first  half  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  and  held  by  Cervantes  worthy  to  be  pre- 
served as  carefully  as  the  poems  of  Homer.    In  the  sixteenth 

133 


134  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

century  Garcia  de  Resende  regretted  the  loss  of  many  poems, 
and  Damiao  de  Goes  lamented  the  number  of  valuable  manu- 
scripts that  had  perished  because  they  had  not  been  placed  in 
the  Torre  do  Tombo.  Even  as  recently  as  the  nineteenth 
century  (in  the  eighteenth  the  earthquake  and  the  fire  that 
followed  it  swallowed  up  hundreds  of  precious  books  and 
manuscripts),  the  archives  of  the  family  of  Niza  were  sold  by 
a  servant  of  the  family  as  waste-paper,  like  the  original  manu- 
scripts of  the  Polyglot  Bible  of  Alcala  some  thirty  years  earlier. 
The  Niza  papers  had  been  placed  for  safety  in  a  cellar  during 
the  Peninsular  War,  and  were  sold  by  the  kilo.  (The  first 
Marquis  of  Niza  was  the  great-great-grandson  of  Vasco  da 
Gama.  The  last  Marquis  was  the  grandfather  of  Dona 
Constan9a  Telles  da  Gama,  whose  imprisonment  for  eight 
months  under  the  Republic  caused  so  great  a  sensation.) 
But  although  by  this  and  similar  mischances  a  vast  number 
of  invaluable  documents  have  been  lost,  a  large  store  remains, 
and  a  considerable  number  have  been  published  of  late  years, 
the  Lisbon  Academy  of  Sciences  doing  excellent  work  in  this 
respect. 

It  was  in  verse  that  the  Portuguese  first  distinguished  them- 
selves. In  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  they 

attained   such   proficiency   in    imitations   of 
Poetr St         Provencal  song  that  it  became  the  fashion  for 

lyrics  throughout  Spain  to  be  composed  in 
Galician  or  Portuguese,  and  a  large  collection  of  lyrics  in  praise 
of  the  Virgin  was  compiled  and  in  part  written  by  King 
Alfonso  X  of  Castille  in  the  Galician  tongue. 

The  first  Portuguese  poem  was  probably  not  prior  to  the 
beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century,  or  prior  by  a  very  few 
years  only,  but  unwritten  songs  of  the  people  had  been 
composed,  especially  by  the  women,  probably  without  a  break 
since  the  days  of  Rome.  The  Portuguese  Court  poets  of  the 
thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  were  not  cut  off  from  the 
life  of  the  people.  How  simple  were  the  Courts  of  those  days 
may  be  realised  from  the  rules  drawn  up  for  the  King's 


Literature  135 

children  by  Alfonso  the  Learned,  whose  daughter  Isabel  was 
mother  of  King  Diniz  of  Portugal.  The  King's  sons  must 
wash  their  hands  before  and  after  meals,  and  not  wipe  them 
on  their  clothes.  They  must  not  sing  at  meals  lest  they  seem 
to  be  merry  with  wine,  nor  bend  over  the  dish  as  if  they  wanted 
all  the  food.  And  thus  among  the  more  servile  imitations  of 
Proven9al  poetry  crept  in  the  Court  versions  of  the  Cantares 
de  amigo,  sung  by  the  people  in  Galicia  and  Portugal,  which 
still  delight  by  their  freshness  and  savour  of  the  soil.  With 
the  death  of  King  Diniz  (1325),  of  whose  own  poems  over  a 
hundred  survive,  the  Provengal  Portuguese  school  of  poetry 
ended.  If  Spain  borrowed  from  Portugal  in  the  composition 
of  the  early  lyrics,  she  repaid  the  debt  later  with  the  romances, 
those  lovely  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  century  crystallisations 
of  the  longer  early  heroic  poems  and  chronicles  of  Spain.  So 
few  romances  originally  belonged  to  Portugal  that  Spanish 
came  to  be  regarded  as  the  appropriate  language  for  them, 
and  a  Portuguese  poet  composing  a  romance  would  do  so  in 
Castilian  as  in  the  thirteenth  century  a  Spanish  poet  would 
compose  his  lyrics  in  Portuguese.  Gil  Vicente  wrote  his 
ballad  of  Duardos  and  Flerida  in  Spanish,  and  it  was  only 
three  centuries  later  that  it  was  translated  into  Portuguese, 
probably  by  Almeida  Garrett.  It  was  the  Breton  cycle  which 
in  its  vague  romance  especially  appealed  to  Portuguese  taste, 
and  its  episodes  have  been,  with  the  death  of  Ines  de  Castro, 
the  prominent  theme  in  Portuguese  literature.  In  history, 
too,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  Nun'  Alvares  took  Sir  Galahad 
for  ideal,  and  in  the  sixteenth  King  Sebastian  became  a 
Portuguese  King  Arthur,  his  return  long  looked  for  in  Portu- 
gal. There  is  a  gap  in  Portuguese  literature  in  the  fourteenth 
and  fifteenth  centuries,  similar  to  that  in  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth,  so  far  as  poetry  is  concerned,  and  the  sixteenth, 
during  which  Portuguese  poetry  revived  and  reached  its 
highest  expression,  began  with  dull  and  uninspired  Court 
poems — of  a  Court  now  more  artificial  than  that  of  King 
Diniz — such  as  the  majority  of  those  in  Garcia  de  Resende's 


136  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

Cancioneiro,  containing  poems  of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth 
centuries,  and  published  in  1516. 

In  prose,  however,  the  fifteenth  century  was  remarkable. 
Portuguese  prose  began  with  brief  jejune  chronicles,  and  with 

nobiliarios  or  livros  de  linhagens  (thirteenth 
jfirst  and  fourteenth  centuries).     A  famous  Livro 

de  linhagens,  or  book  of  descents,  was  that 
compiled  by  Pedro,  son  of  King  Diniz,  in  prose  which  already 
possesses  considerable  literary  pretensions,  although  it  cannot 
compare  for  clearness,  grace,  and  concision  with  the  admirable 
work  of  King  Duarte,  0  Leal  Conselheiro  (circa  1430). 

To  the  fifteenth  century  also  belong  the  first  important 
chronicles.     Fernao  Lopes,  who  died  in  the  middle  of  the 

century,  and  wrote  chronicles  which  have  been 
Chronicles.      set  side  by  side  with  or  even  above  those  of 

Froissart,  was  Keeper  of  the  Royal  Archives, 
and  Chronista  mor.  As  such  he  was  charged  to  "  set  forth  in 
chronicles  the  histories  of  the  kings — poer  em  coronycas  as 
estorias  dos  reis."  He  wrote  that  of  King  Joao  I,  and  probably 
that  of  all  the  other  Kings  of  Portugal  to  his  own  day.  Lopes  is 
described  as  "  a  notable  person  "  by  his  successor,  Gomes 
Eannes  de  Azurara,  who  died  in  1474,  and  who  completed  the 
chronicle  of  Joao  I,  and  wrote  among  other  works  the  Chronica 
do  descobrimento  e  conquista  da  Guine  (published  at  Paris,  1841) ; 
translated  into  English,  with  an  important  study,  by  Mr. 
Edgar  Prestage).  Ruy  de  Pina  became  Chronista  mor  in 
1497,  and  wrote  or  re- wrote  the  chronicles  of  the  Kings  of 
Portugal  from  Sancho  I  to  Joao  II  in  a  somewhat  more 
affected  and  artificial  style  than  that  of  his  predecessors. 

The  sixteenth  century,  famous  for  its  poets  in  Portugal  as 

in  other  countries,  was  also  exceedingly  rich  in  Portuguese 

„  prose  of  the  most  varied  kinds.     Damiao  de 

deGoes.        Goes  (1502-74)  took  up  the  work  of  the  early 

chronicles,  and  wrote  during  the  years  1557-66 
his  famous  Chronica  de  Dom  Manoel,  a  clear  and  careful 
account  of  the  discovery  and  conquest  of  India  and  of  events 


Literature  137 

at  home.  Damiao  de  Goes'  life  and  character  are  even  more 
interesting  than  his  works,  and  although  his  travels  did  not 
extend  beyond  Europe  they  were  as  arresting  in  their  way 
as  are  the  Peregrinates  of  Fernao  Mendes  Pinto  (1509-80) 
in  theirs. 

During  twenty-one  years  the  life  of  the  latter  was  a  series 
of  "  great  hardships  and  misfortunes  and  dangers."  He  was 
thirteen  times  taken  captive,  and  twenty-one 
times  (in  another  passage  he  says  sixteen 
times)  sold  as  a  slave  during  his  adventurous 
career  in  the  East,  and  he  has  left  us  the  most  vivid  and 
delightful  memoirs.  They  read  like  a  modern  novel,  but, 
except  for  some  obvious  mistakes  in  facts  and  figures,  bear 
the  stamp  of  truth. 

The  glorious  enterprises  and  discoveries  of  King  Manoel's 
reign  naturally  found  many  chroniclers.  Fernao  Lopes 
de  Castanheda  spent  more  than  twenty  years 
History.  over  his  "  History  of  the  Discovery  and 
Conquest  of  India  by  the  Portuguese  "  (1554), 
scrupulously  visiting  the  places  and  many  of  the  persons 
concerned.  The  knowledge  thus  acquired  was  all  the  wealth 
he  brought  back  with  him  from  India,  and  he  was  reduced 
to  accept  the  office  of  beadle  of  the  Faculty  of  Arts  at  Coimbra 
University.  The  style  of  his  history  is  plain  and  unadorned, 
sentence  after  sentence  beginning  with  "  And  "  ;  the  narrative 
is  simple  and  outspoken,  and  has  an  ingenuous  freshness 
suitable  to  the  account  of  the  "  seas  ne'er  traversed  before." 
Some  of  his  pages,  as  the  description  of  the  natives  of  Malabar, 
might  have  come  straight  out  of  Herodotus.  Joao  de  Barros, 
of  Vizeu  (1496-1570)  began  the  famous  Decadas,  describing 
the  Portuguese  conquests  in  the  East,  and  wrote  a  romance 
of  chivalry  and  a  Portuguese  grammar.  His  Decadas  were 
continued  by  Diogo  de  Couto  (1544-1616),  who  was  able  to 
bring  to  their  composition  the  knowledge  from  fifty  years  of 
personal  experience  in  India.  Caspar  Correa,  born  in  1495, 
wrote  the  Lendas  da  India,  and  was  killed  in  a  quarrel,  or 


138  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

perhaps  deliberately  murdered  at  Malaca  in  1564.  Bras 
d' Albuquerque  (1500-1580)  composed  the  Commenlarios  of 
his  father,  the  great  Affonso  d' Albuquerque,  from  original 
letters  written  by  the  latter  in  India  to  King  Manoel,  a 
straightforward  account  marked  by  much  restraint  and  regard 
for  truth,  and  enlivened  by  vivid  scenes  here  and  there. 
Many  of  those  who  went  to  India,  missionaries,  adventurers, 
soldiers,  officials,  wrote  narratives  of  their  experiences.  The 
Roteiros  of  Vasco  da  Gama  and  Jo§.o  de  Castro  are  of  remark- 
able interest  both  for  their  contents  and  their  style.  There 
are  few  more  stirring  and  pathetic  narratives  than  those  of  the 
tragedies  of  the  sea,  the  Historia  Tragico-Maritima  (Lisbon, 
2  vols.,  1735-6),  tales  of  shipwreck  which  made  the  greatest 
impression  on  those  who  read  and  listened  to  them.  One 
suspects  that  Mendes  Pinto  wrote  some  of  his  wonderfully 
vivid  shipwreck  scenes  under  the  recollection  of  those  longer 
narratives,  to  the  most  famous  of  which,  the  Shipwreck  of 
Sepulveda,  he  refers  in  his  memoirs.  Antonio  Tenreiro  wrote 
an  Itinerario  of  his  journey  by  land  from  India  to  Europe, 
combining  with  this  an  account  of  other  travels.  His  principal 
journey  was  from  Ormuz  to  Tripoli  by  camel  with  a  single 
Arab  (Mouro  alarve)  attendant,  taking  twenty-two  days  to 
cross  the  desert.  From  Tripoli  he  proceeded  to  Cyprus,  Crete, 
Ferrara,  Genoa,  thence  "  with  much  fear  of  the  Turks,"  by 
sea  to  the  coast  of  Valencia,  and  on  to  Toledo  and  Lisbon. 
He  observes  minutely  and  raps  out  his  information  in  concise 
disconnected  sentences.  Pantaleao  de  Aveiro  wrote  an  Itine- 
rary of  the  Holy  Land,  Frei  Caspar  Fructuoso  the  Saudades 
da  Terra,  Frei  Caspar  da  Cruz  a  Tratado  das  Cousas  da  China 
e  de  Ormuz. 

Apart   from  these   profane   writings,   there  were  several 

notable  preachers  in  this  century,  as  the  celebrated  Archbishop 

of   Braga,    Frei   Bartholomeu   dos   Martyres 

GrWorks°S<       0514-90),  Frei  Miguel  dos  Santos  (d.  1595), 

only  one  of  whose  sermons,  on  the  death  of 

King  Sebastian,  remains.     Of  Diogo  de  Paiva  de  Andrade 


Literature  139 

(1528-75)  181  survive  (3  vols.,  1603,  4,  15),  and  there  are 
three  volumes  (1611,  3, 6)  of  those  of  Frei  Francisco  Fernandes 
Galvao  (1554-1610).  Heitor  Pinto  (d.  1584),  Professor  of 
Scripture  at  Coimbra  University,  wrote  eleven  dialogues  : 
Imagem  da  vida  christa  (Coimbra,  2  vols.,  1563,  72).  The 
Trabalhos  de  Jesus  by  Frei  Thome  de  Jesus  did  not  appear 
till  1620  and  1629  (Lisbon,  2  pts.).  Gon9alo  Fernandes 
Trancoso  is  remembered  by  his  Contos  e  historias  de  proveito 
e  exemplo,  twenty-nine  of  which  first  appeared  in  1585.  Joao 
de  Lucena  wrote  the  life  of  St.  Francis  Xavier  :  Historia  da 
Vida  do  Padre  Francisco  Xavier.  Samuel  Usque,  a  Portuguese 
Jew  of  Lisbon,  composed  a  Consolacam  as  tribulacoes  de  Israel 
(Ferrara,  1552),  much  needed  in  that  period  of  massacres  of 
"  new  Christians."  It  is  written  in  a  coloured  and  exuberant 
style,  recalling  at  times  that  of  the  Spanish  writer  Luis  de 
Leon.  All  these  works  and  many  more,  though  unequal  in 
merit,  are  worth  recording  and  reading  partly  from  the  interest 
of  the  facts  and  descriptions  they  contain,  and  partly  because 
after  them  good  Portuguese  prose  only  occasionally  revisited 
the  earth. 

But,  of  course,  the  sixteenth  century,  for  all  the  excellence 
of  its  prose,  was  also  the  golden  age  of  Portuguese  poetry. 

Gil  Vicente  (about  1470-1540),  although  he 
Vicente          inaugurated  the  Portuguese  drama  in  1502, 

was  essentially  a  lyric  poet.  In  his  work 
the  true  spirit  of  old  Portugal  survives,  a  spirit  of  simple 
mirth  with  dance  and  song,  and  a  note  of  gaiety  so  rare  in 
Portuguese  literature.  His  plays  are  of  extreme  value  to 
students  of  Portugal  in  the  sixteenth  century,  the  cantigas 
and  romances,  etc.,  which  they  contain  are  for  all  time. 

Francisco  de  Sa  de  Miranda  (c.  1490-1558)  brought  back 
from  his  travels  in  Italy  the  fixed  resolve  to  introduce  the 

Italian  metres  into  Portuguese  poetry,  and, 
Miranda.        retiring   some   years   later   from   the   Court, 

devoted  the  rest  of  his  life  to  poetry,  garden- 
ing, and  the  chase  in  the  beautiful  province  of  Minho.  A  man 


140  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

of  austere  and  noble  character,  he  was  less  generous  to  himself 
than  to  his  friends,  wrote  an  early  biographer.  Friends  he 
had  many,  among  the  peasants  and  shepherds  of  the  Minho 
hills,  the  neighbouring  nobles  and  poets  from  all  parts  of 
Portugal.  He  imprinted  his  individuality  on  his  poems 
written  in  the  new  style,  and  especially  on  his  eclogues  com- 
posed in  the  old  octosyllabic  redondilhas.  Among  his  friends 
were  Diogo  Bernardes,  some  thirty  years  his  junior,  who 
celebrated  his  beloved  river  Lima,  on  whose  banks  was  his 
birthplace,  with  a  softness  and  fluency  in  the  new  metres  not 
given  to  Sa.  de  Miranda,  and  whose  sonnets  rivalled  those 
with  which  Camoes  soothed  an  exile's  grief  ;  Antonio  Ferreira 
(1528-1569),  who  was  the  first  to  write  a  classical  drama, 
Ines  de  Castro,  and  who  remained  faithful  to  Portuguese  when 
most  of  his  contemporaries  wrote  indifferently  in  Portuguese 
or  Spanish  ;  Dom  Manoel  de  Portugal  (1520-1606),  the  first 
poet  to  follow  Sa  de  Miranda  in  adopting  the  Italian  measures  ; 
Pedro  de  Andrade  Caminha  (c.  1520-89),  highly  praised  by 
his  contemporaries,  but  whose  verse  has  a  certain  wooden 
quality  foreign  to  theirs.  To  name  all  the  poets  whose  verse 
was  inspired  by  the  genius  of  those  spacious  times  were  an 
endless  task.  Frei  Agostinho  da  Cruz  (c.  1540-1619)  wrote 
verses,  like  his  brother  Diogo  Bernardes — 

Na  ribeira  do  Lima  em  tenra  idade. 

Of  Francisco  de  Sa  de  Meneses,  Conde  de  Mattosinhos  (he 
was  created  Count  of  Mattosinhos  in  1580  and  died  there  in 
1584)  much  of  the  poetry  has  been  lost,  but  what  survives  is 
of  high  excellence.  His  delightful  verses  to  the  river  Lega 
were  not  rediscovered  till  the  nineteenth  century,  by  Dr. 
Sousa  Viterbo  in  the  Torre  do  Tombo. 

About  the  lives  of  the  two  poets  of  Saudade,  Bernardim 

Ribeiro  and  Christovam  Falcao,  little  is  known,  but  their 

eclogues  are  notable  for  their  perfection  of 

BRibeirom       *orm  anc*  ^at  passionate  melancholy  peculiar 

•  to   Portuguese  literature.     Elaborate  efforts 

have  been  made  to  construct  their  biographies  out  of  their 


THE    CATHEDRAL,    BRAGA 


[See  p.  56 


Literature  141 

poems,   a  risky  proceeding  with    poets  who    so  evidently 
delighted  in  dismal  incidents  for  their  own  sake. 

Luis  de  Camoes,  the  greatest  of  all  these  poets,  was  a  few 
years  younger  than  most  of  them.     To  him  at  least  grief  and 

disappointment  came  in  flowing  measure,  and 
Camoes.         he  lived  to  die  with  his  country  in    1580, 

probably  at  the  age  of  56.  Out  of  his  sorrows 
he  built  a  fairy  edifice  of  verse,  which  has  delighted  and 
sustained  his  countrymen  ever  since.  With  him  Portuguese 
poetry  reached  a  level  only  dimly  heralded  by  his  predecessors  : 
to  judge  from  their  poetry  only,  it  would  be  difficult  to  believe 
that  the  lives  of  Vicente,  Miranda  and  Camoes  overlapped. 

The  most  notable  literary  figure  of  the  seventeenth  century 
in  Portugal  is  Dom  Francisco  Manuel  de  Mello  (1608-66). 

Those  who  read  of  his  manifold  adventures 

in    Mr<    Prestage's    biography    will    perhaps 

wonder  that  he  should  have  found  time  or 
temper  to  write  at  all,  and  his  works  are  many  and  various, 
from  the  "  History  of  the  War  in  Catalonia  "  to  the  Carta  de 
Guia  de  Casados  and  Cartas  Familiares,  admirably  clear  and 
direct  in  style. 

Most  of  his  contemporaries  were  infected  with  gongorismo 
from   Spain,   and  their   writings  defaced   by  conceits  and 

hyperbole.       Jacyntho      Freire     d'Andrade 

Se^nteenth-     (1597-1657)  wrote  the  biography  of  Dom  Joao 

Prx>se.y         de  Castro  in  an  artificial  style  closely  modelled 

on  that  of  Tacitus.  Frei  Bernardo  de  Brito 
(1569-1617)  composed  A  Monarchia  Lusitana  (parts  1  and  2), 
of  which  it  has  been  said  that  it  ends  where  it  should  have 
begun — with  the  history  of  Portugal, 1  but  which  was  written 
in  good  Portuguese  prose.  Frei  Luis  de  Sousa  (1555-1632) 
wrote  among  other  works  the  life  of  Bartholomeu  dos  Martyres, 
Archbishop  of  Braga.  As  Manoel  de  Sousa  Coutinho,  he 
returned  from  the  disastrous  Alcacer  Kebir  expedition  after 

1  Mendes  dos  Remedies  :    Historia  da  Litteratuara  Portuguesa  desde 
as  origens  ate  a  actualidade.     4a  edi9ao.     Coimbra,  1914. 


142  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

a  year's  captivity,  and  married  the  widow  of  Dom  Joao 
de  Portugal,  who  was  killed  at  Alcacer  Kebir.  He  retired 
to  a  convent,  as  did  also  his  wife,  after  their  daughter's  death. 
The  legend  of  the  return  of  Dona  Magdalena's  first  husband 
inspired  Garrett  with  his  celebrated  play,  Frei  Luis  de  Sousa. 
There  were  a  considerable  number  of  miscellaneous  prose 
works  of  merit,  as  the  Discursos  varios  of  Manoel  Severim 
de  Faria  (1583-1655)  and  the  Itinerario  da  India  por  terra  ate 
a  ilha  de  Chipre  by  Frei  Caspar  de  S.  Bernardino.  The  works 
of  the  Jesuit  Antonio  Vieira  (1608-1697)  fill  twenty-six 
volumes  (with  200  sermons,  500  letters),  those  of  Manoel 
Bernardes  (1644-1710)  nineteen  volumes  (sermons  and  moral 
treatises).  In  both  Portuguese  prose  is  seen  at  its  best. 

In  1669  appeared  in  French  five  love  letters  purporting  to 
be  written  by  Marianna  de  Alcoforado,  a  Portuguese  nun  born 
in  1640,  from  her  convent  to  a  French  officer, 
afterwards  the  Marquis  de  Chamilly.  They 
were  translated,  or  retranslated  into  Portu- 
guese and  are  reckoned  among  the  masterpieces  of  Portuguese 
prose.  Portugal  was  known  for  its  sentimental  fervour,  and 
the  wholly  untenable  suspicion  arises  that  a  French  writer 
may  have  composed  these  letters  (basing  them  on  a  foundation 
of  fact),  and  attributed  them  to  the  Portuguese  nun  as  later 
Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning  called  her  love  sonnets  "  Sonnets 
from  the  Portuguese." 

In  the  eighteenth  century,  when  lyrical  poetry  seemed  to 
have  died  out  of  Europe,  it  became  more  than  ever  evident 
how  much  the  excellence  of  Portuguese 
literature  depends  on  the  lyric.  None  of  the 
Portuguese  poets  of  this  any  more  than  of  the 
preceding  century  attained  prominence,  while  in  the  eighteenth 
there  was  no  compensating  excellence  in  prose.  Some  letters 
and  sermons  and  treatises  on  the  Portuguese  language  there 
were,  and  Barbosa  Machado  (1682-1772)  composed  his 
valuable  Bibliotheca  Lusitana.  It  was  the  age  of  academies 
and  arcadias.  The  Academia  Real  da  Historia  was  founded 


Literature  143 

in  1720,  the  Academia  Real  das  Sciencias,  which  has  done 
and  continues  to  do  such  good  service  to  Portuguese  literature, 
first  met  in  1780. 

Of  the  poets,  many  of  whom  met  with  a  tragic  fate,  Jose 
Agostinho  de  Macedo  (1761-1831)  was  a  dull  and  copious  versi- 
fier, who  apparently  reserved  all  his  fire  for 
Eighteenth-  attacks  upon  dead  or  contemporary  writers. 
PoetsT  He  made  bold  to  supersede  the  Lusiads  with 
his  poem  Gama  (1811),  subsequently  revised 
and  entitled  Oriente  (1814).  Correa  Gargao  (1724-72)  was  im- 
prisoned by  order  of  the  powerful  Minister,  the  Marquez  de 
Pombal,  in  1772,  and  is  stated  to  have  died  in  prison  on  the 
very  day  on  which  his  release  was  ordered.  His  complete  works 
were  published  at  Rome  in  1888.  Domingos  dos  Reis  Quita 
(1728-70),  a  Lisbon  hairdresser,  wrote  odes,  idyls,  tragedies,  a 
pastoral  drama,  but  his  poetry  is  second-rate  except  when 
it  closely  imitates  Camoes.  Antonio  Jose  da  Silva  was  born 
in  Brazil  in  1705.  He  belonged  to  a  family  of  "  new 
Christians,"  and  by  the  people  of  Lisbon,  which  enjoyed  his 
comedies,  he  was  known  as  "  the  Jew."  He  perished,  stran- 
gled and  then  burnt,  in  the  auto  da  fe  of  18th  October,  1739. 
Francisco  Manuel  do  Nascimento  (Filinto  Elysio),  more; 
fortunate,  escaped  from  the  Inquisition  and  lived  and  died  in 
Paris.  He  earned  a  living  by  translation,  and  his  copious 
poetry  had  a  great  vogue  in  his  day  but  now  has  few  readers. 
The  most  talented  of  all  the  Portuguese  eighteenth-century 
poets  was  another  Arcadian,  Manuel  Maria  Barbosa  de 
Bocage, 1  whose  Arcadian  name  was  Elmano  Sadino.  Born 
at  Setubal  in  1765,  he  deserted  from  military  service  in  India, 
and  returned  to  Lisbon  in  1790,  where  he  led  a  dissipated  life 
and  was  in  1797  imprisoned  during  three  months  in  the 
Limoeiro  for  having  published  a  poem  entitled  A  pavorosa 
illusao  da  Eternidade.  After  the  Limoeiro  he  was  a  prisoner 
of  the  Inquisition  for  four  months,  and  was  then  relegated 

1  Obras,  6  vols.,  Lisbon,  1853,  with  biography  by  Rebello  da  Silva  ; 
8  vols.,  Porto,  1875-6,  with  biography  by  TheophilQ 


144  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

to  a  monastery.  He  died,  worn  out  by  his  own  excesses,  at 
the  age  of  40,  in  1805.  With  a  fund  of  satire  and  gift  of 
facile  improvisation,  he  rose  occasionally  to  real  poetry,  as  in 
some  of  his  sonnets. 

In  the  nineteenth  century  lyric  poetry  revived  in  Portugal 
as  elsewhere,  although  the  influence  of  Byron  did   not  there 

inspire  any  genius  such  as  Espronceda  in 
_    The .          Spain.     The  romanticism  of  Antonio  Feliciano 

de  Castilho  (1800-75)  was  of  a  gentler  kind. 
Blind  from  the  age  of  six,  his  literary  activity  was  nevertheless 
untiring.  Besides  writing  a  large  number  of  books  of  verse, 
he  translated  Ovid,  Anacreon,  Virgil,  Moliere,  Shakespeare, 
Goethe's  Faust.  Other  romantic  poets  were  Scares  de  Passos 
(1826-60)  ;  Joao  de  Lemos  (1819-S9),  who  in  a  A  Lua  de 
Londres  regrets  Portugal  and  his  native  Douro  ;  Mendes  Leal 
(1818-86),  who  won  a  great  reputation  with  his  heroic  odes 
(especially  Ave  Cesar,  0  Pavilhdo,  and  Napoledo  no  Kremlin)  ; 
Jose  Simoes  Bias  (1844-99),  who,  besides  his  poems  (Penin- 
sulares),  wrote  a  history  of  Portuguese  literature,  and  Gomes 
d'Amorim  (1827-92). 

In   1865  appeared  the  Poema  da  Mocidade,  by  Pinheiro 
Chagas,  with  a  letter  by  Castilho,  which  gave  rise  to  Quental's 

Bom  senso  e  bom  gosto  and  the  beginning  of  a 
R     5  new  school  of  poets.     Foremost  among  these 

were  Anthero  de  Quental  (1842-91)  himself, 
and  Joao  de  Deus  Ramos  (1830-96) .  Their  poetry  has  nothing 
in  common,  but  they  are  both  equally  far  removed  from  the 
traditional  romantic  school.  The  sonnets  of  Anthero  (many 
of  which  have  been  translated  into  English  by  Mr.  Edgar 
Prestage)  have  nothing  to  fear  from  comparison  with  those 
of  any  other  nineteenth-century  poet.  Portuguese  in  his 
hands  became  adamantine  and  sonorous,  and  the  sonnet  a 
trumpet-call.  Joao  de  Deus,  on  the  other  hand,  wrote 
feathery  light  lyrics  with  great  naturalness  and  charm,  and 
in  his  easy  flow  of  improvisation  is  far  the  more  characteristic- 
ally Portuguese  of  the  two.  Thomaz  Ribeiro  (1831-1901) 


Literature  145 

belonged  to  the  romantic  school,  and  is  the  author  of  the 
celebrated  ode  A  Portugal.  Gongalves  Crespo  (1846-83) 
published  only  two  small  volumes  of  poems,  Miniaturas  (1870) 
and  Nocturnos  (1882),  which  contain  one  or  two  little 
masterpieces,  such  as  the  sonnet  Mater  dolorosa. 

Of  living  poets  the  most  widely  known  is  Senhor  Abilio 
Guerra  Junqueiro  (born  in  1850),  who  now,  however,  rarely 

publishes  any  verse.     He  is  a  true  poet,  and 
Poet?         Finis  Patriae,   and,   above  all,   Os  Simples 

(1892,  sixth  edition,  1913),  contain  the  best 
poems  in  the  Portuguese  language  of  the  last  twenty  years. 
In  other  works  his  poetry  has  often  suffered  from  an  invasion 
of  rhetoric,  but  it  always  displays  vigour  and  courageous 
patriotism.  There  are  many  schools,  the  Cloud  Treaders 
(N ephelibatas) ,  of  whom  Snr.  Eugenio  de  Castro  is  the  head  ; 
the  Parnassians,  as  Colonel  Christovam  Ayres,  Snr.  Antonio 
Feijo,  Joao  Diniz,  Joaquim  de  Araujo,  aiming  at  and  some- 
times achieving  that  perfection  of  form  which  marked  the 
work  of  Gon9alves  Crespo,  Joao  Penha,  Antonio  Nobre  ;  the 
pantheistic  school  of  the  Renascenpa,  of  which  the  principal 
poets  are  Snr.  Teixeira  de  Pascoaes,  and  Snr.  Mario  Beirao. 
Two  notable  living  poets  are  Snr.  Affonso  Lopes  Vieira  and 
Snr.  Antonio  Correa  d'Oliveira,  whose  works  are  always  read 
with  eagerness,  the  latter  especially  having  caught  some 
of  the  sixteenth-century  lyrical  vein.  The  living  poets  of 
Portugal  are,  however,  so  numerous  that  it  is  impossible  even 
to  give  the  names  of  all  of  them.  A  French  critic,  who  names 
some  sixty,  says  modestly :  "  On  ne  peut  tout  citer."1 
It  is  preferable  to  leave  them  on  one  side  (although  an 

anthology  of  some  merit  might  easily  be  formed 

from  their   works)   and   to  £°  back  to  that 
strange  figure  and  very  real  poet  of  the  first  half 

of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  Visconde  de  Almeida  Garrett 
(1799-1854).     He  was  master  of  a  peculiar  and  fascinating 

1  Phileas   Lebesgue  :     Le   Portugal   littivaire   d'auiourd'hui.     Paris, 
1904. 

10 — (2404) 


146  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

style  of  Portuguese  prose,  he  revived  the  Portuguese  drama, 
he  wrote  long  romantic  poems  and  exquisitely  finished  short 
lyrics,  and  he  collected  old  Portuguese  romances,  which, 
however,  he  could  not  refrain  from  retouching  and  adorning. 
It  is  impossible  to  over-estimate  his  services  to  Portuguese 
literature,  although  the  works  written  by  him  that  will  be  read  a 
hundred  years  hence  will  probably  fit  into  a  very  small  volume. 
In  prose  the  other  great  figure  of  the  nineteenth  century  in 
Portugal  was  Alexandre  Herculano  (1810-77),  historian, 

poet    and    historical    novelist    (Historia   de 
Herculano.       Portugal ;  Lendas  e  Narrativas  ;  Eurico,  etc). 

His  works  are  of  permanent  value,  and  his 
prose  bears  the  impress  of  his  strong  exceptional  character. 
Other  historical  writers  were  Pinheiro  Chagas  (1842-95), 
Latino  Coelho  (1825-91),  Rebello  da  Silva  (1821-72),  and 
Oliveira  Martins  (1845-94). 

The  latter's  first  work  was  a  historical  novel,   and  his 
work  remained  romantic  throughout,  but  he  had  the  power 

of   reconstituting   historical   scenes   in   their 
Martins         picturesqueness  and  colour,  and  making  the 

dry  bones  live.  His  most  celebrated  works 
are  his  Historia  de  Portugal,  Portugal  Contemporaneo,  A  Vida 
de  Nun'  Alvares,  and  the  Filhos  de  Jodo  I.  He  did  not, 
however,  confine  himself  in  his  historical  writings  to  Portugal, 
but  embraced  the  histories  of  Greece,  Rome,  and  Iberian 
civilisation.  When  one  remembers  that  he  was  also  an  active 
politician  and  Minister  of  Finance  in  1892,  it  is  not  surprising 
that  he  had  worn  himself  out  before  reaching  the  age  of  50. 
The  novel  in  Portugal  since  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century  has  embraced  the  most  varied  kinds  and  sometimes 

attained   a   high   degree   of   merit.     Camillo 
Camillo.        Castello  Branco  (1826-1890),  most  Portuguese 

of  writers  in  theme  and  style,  wrote  over  a 
hundred  novels.  He  was  gifted  with  a  temperament  that 
could  not  fail  to  make  his  life  restless  and  unhappy  and  is 
reflected  in  the  sentimental  tragedies  and  nervous  pessimism 


Literature  147 

and  vitriolic  satire  of  his  books.  By  his  countrymen  his 
novels,  especially  Amor  de  perdicdo,  are  still  read  with  enthu- 
siasm ;  for  foreigners  they  are  redeemed  by  the  pure  Portu- 
guese of  their  style  and  by  the  occasional  insight  to  be  won 
from  them  into  the  Portuguese  life  of  the  second  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  But  probably  it  is  necessary  to  be  born 
a  Portuguese  in  order  to  do  them  full  justice.  For  those 
who  wish  to  learn  Portuguese  untainted  with  Gallicisms  they 
are  invaluable. 

E$a  de  Queiroz  (1846-1900),  the  other  great  Portuguese 

novelist  of  the  century,  is,  on  the  contrary,  almost  as  much 

French  as  Portuguese  in  style,  and  is  probably 

de  Oueiroz  *ne  ^es^  known  °^  m°dern  Portuguese  writers 
outside  Portugal.  His  work  contains  many 
arresting  pages,  especially  those  which  describe  country  or 
provincial  life  in  Portugal  (in  0  Crime  do  Padre  Amaro,  1875  ; 
A  Correspondencia  de  Fradique  Mendes,  1891  ;  A  Illustre  Casa 
de  Ramires,  1897  ;  A  Cidade  e  as  Serras,  1901).  Life  in  Lisbon 
is  described,  or  perhaps  one  should  say  distorted,  caricatured 
in  0  Primo  Basilio  (1878),  Os  Maias  (1880),  and  in  part  of 
A  Reliquia  (1887).  E$a  de  Queiroz  went  from  strength  to 
strength,  or  rather  from  weakness  to  strength.  His  later 
work  is  more  original  and  above  all  more  Portuguese.  It  is 
in  parts  very  striking  indeed,  and  through  all  his  novels  runs 
that  peculiar  flavour  of  irony  and  sarcasm  which  prevents 
him  from  ever  being  merged  entirely  in  the  French  realistic 
or  naturalistic  school. 

A  writer  of  less  vigorous  talent  was  "  Julio  Diniz  "  (Joaquim 

Guilherme   Gomes   Coelho)    (1839-71),   whose  novels,    Uma 

Familia    Inglesa    (1862),    As    Pupillas    do 

Dfaiz  Sr'  Reitor  (1867)»  A  Morgadinha  dos  Cannav- 

iaes   (1868),    Os  Fidalgos  da   Casa  Morisca 

(1871)  treat  of  country  themes  with  a  quiet  charm  and  no 

little  psychological  interest.     Some  of  his  pages  recall  those 

of  the  Spanish   novelist  Fernan  Caballero    in  their  delicate 

observation  and  gentle  optimism. 


148  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

Of  living  novelists,  Snr.  Teixeira  de  Queiroz  (born  in  1848) 

also  occasionally  recalls  Fernan  Caballero  in  a  certain  naive 

and  delightful  power  of  description,  preferably 

Living          Q£  country  scenes  and  peasants.     His  best 

Novelists.  J  i   •      ,  t        i  •          r  ,• 

work  is  contained  in  the  short  stories  of  his 

Comedia  do  Campo — Contos,  Amor  Divino,  Antonio  Fogueir  a, 
Novos  Contos,  Amores,  Amores,  A  Nossa  Genie,  A  Cantadeira 
(1913).  Sr.  Luiz  de  Magalhaes,  born  in  1859,  who  was 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  in  Senhor  Joao  Franco's  Ministry, 
wrote  in  1886  a  novel  entitled  0  Brazileiro  Soares,  a  careful 
study  of  a  "  Brazilian  "  (that  is,  a  Portuguese  returning 
enriched  from  Brazil),  which  placed  him  in  the  front  rank  of 
contemporary  Portuguese  novelists.  Senhor  Magalhaes  Lima, 
born  in  1857,  did  not  publish  his  first  novel,  0  Transviado,  till 
1899.  Other  novels  by  the  same  author  are  A  Paz  do  Senhor 
(1903)  and  0  Reino  da  Saudade  (1904).  Senhor  Abel  Botelho, 
born  in  1854,  and  appointed  Minister  at  Buenos  Aires  by  the 
Republic,  has  a  great  reputation  as  a  novelist.  His  novels 
are  professedly  "  pathological."  A  Portuguese  critic  remarks 
that  his  books  sometimes  "  cause  more  moral  indignation  than 
aesthetic  enjoyment."1  Younger  contemporary  novelists,  as 
contemporary  poets,  are  very  numerous. 

The  short  story,  or  conto,  has  been  written  with  success  by 
so  many  authors  that  it  has  almost  become  a  special  feature  of 

modern  Portuguese  literature :  E?a  de  Queiroz, 
„  cTh*  , ,       Snr.  Teixeira  de  Queiroz,  Affonso  Botelho, 

Fialho  d' Almeida  (1857-1911)— stories  of 
Alemtejo  in  0  Paiz  das  Uvas  and  other  works — the  Conde  de 
Ficalho,  the  Conde  de  Sabugosa,  Julio  Cesar  Machado,  the 
Visconde  de  Villa  Moura  (Os  Humildes,  Bohemios,  etc.),  and 
above  all,  Trindade  Coelho,  whose  Os  Meus  Amores  are  stories 
deliberately  ingenuous,  remarkable  for  their  style.  Dona 
Maria  Amalia  Vaz  de  Carvalho,  whose  husband  was  the  poet 
Gongalves  Crespo,  has  also  written  contos  and  poems.  But 

1  Fidelino  de  Figueiredo  :    Historia  da    Litteratura  Realista  (1871- 
1900).     Lisboa,    1914. 


Literature  149 

her  chief  work  consists  in  historical  studies  and  in  critical 
essays.      Her  works    comprise    over  twenty  volumes,   and 

especially  she  has  won  English  gratitude 
Dona  Maria  by  introducing  some  part  of  modern 
<teTarvalho.  English  literature  to  Portuguese  and  Brazilian 

readers. 

"  Em  Portugal  nunca  chegou  a  haver  theatro — a  Portuguese 
drama  has  never  existed,"  said  Garrett  (life  to  a  Portuguese  is 

perhaps  not  dull  enough  to  drive  him  to  the 
Drama.         theatre),  and  his  own  plays  for  long  continued 

to  be  an  isolated  achievement.  Recently,  how- 
ever, a  number  of  playwrights  by  no  means  to  be  despised  have 
arisen  in  Portugal.  Foremost  among  them  are  Snr.  Julio  Dantas, 
Dom  Joao  da Camara  (1852-1912),  Antonio Ennes  (1848-1901), 
Snr.  Marcellino  de  Mesquita,  Snr.  Henrique  Lopes  de  Mendonga 
and  Snr.  Abel  Botelho,  the  novelist.  It  would  almost  seem 
as  if  there  were  two  writers  to  every  reader  in  Portugal. 
"  Every  passing  season  inundates  the  bookshops  with  a  flood 
of  brochures  in  verse  and  prose,  the  proof  of  an  exaggerated 
output  of  books.  It  seems  as  if  even  the  illiterates  must  be 
authors  "  (Diario  de  Noticias,  6th  April,  1914).  What 
most  amazes  the  foreigner  is  to  see  the  Lisbon  bookshops 
parade  a  crowd  of  foreign  books,  while  those  in  Portuguese  are 
often  tucked  'away  in  some  obscure  corner.  Modern  Portu- 
guese literature  is,  unhappily,  like  finance  and  politics,  largely 
of  artificial  growth,  imported  from  abroad.  There  is  plenty 
of  writers  but  no  critical  reading  public. 

The  excessive  number  of  writers  is  no  doubt  due  in  part 
to  the  defects  of  a  criticism  which  appears  not  to  realise  its 

power  of  regulating  this  stream  of  production. 
CritTs          ^  ttttk  smcere  condemnation  may  serve  to 

prevent  a  whole  series  of  inferior  works  of 
fiction  or  poetry,  especially  as  Portuguese  writers  are  very 
sensitive  to  criticism.  Fortunately  contemporary  Portuguese 
literature  now  has  a  promising  young  critic  in  Senhor  Fidelino 
de  Figueiredo,  who  combines  sympathy  with  sincerity  and 


150  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

may  do  something  to  check  copious,  slovenly,  and  slavishly 
imitative  writing,  and  inaugurate  a  school  of  concrete  criticism. 
Senhor  Theophile  Braga  does  not  deal  with  contemporary 
literature,  but  is  still  piling  Ossa  on  Pelion  in  the  wide  range 
of  his  works.  His  long  poem,  A  Visdo  dos  Tempos,  was 
published  in  1864,  and  his  Historia  da  Litter atur a  Portugueza 
continues  to  receive  valuable  additions  from  time  to  time. 
There  is  plenty  of  literary  talent  in  Portugal,  but  it  needs 
direction  :  it  would  be  a  thousand  pities  were  it  all  to  be 
frittered  away  from  an  inability  to  select  and  concentrate. 

In  art  the  Portuguese  have  never  occupied  a  very  high  posi- 
tion.    Perhaps  they  are  too  vague  and  romantic.    Yet  in 

early  times  they  would  seem  to  have  excelled 
Art.  rather  in  realistic  representation  on  a  small 

scale  than  in  large  romantic  pictures,  as  may 
be  seen  in  the  admirable,  minute  sculpture  on  the  tombs  at 
Alcoba9a  and  in  the  illustrations  of  old  manuscripts — for 
instance,  the  wonderfully  life-like  portrait  of  Prince  Henry 
the  Navigator  in  the  Chronicle  of  Gomes  Eannes  de  Azurara, 
a  masterpiece  attributed  to  Nuno  Goncalves,  who  painted  the 
exceedingly  fine  triptychs  now  in  the  Lisbon  Museum.  What 
treasures  of  art  are  or  were  (being  now  transferred  to  museums) 
contained  in  Portugal's  churches  and  convents  is  amply  shown 
by  an  excellent  magazine  of  art  now  being  published  by  Snr. 
Joaquim  de  Vasconcellos,  whose  researches  in  connection  with 
Damiao  de  Goes,  Francisco  de  Hollanda,  and  other  Portuguese 
classics  have  earned  him  the  gratitude  of  all  who  interest 
themselves  in  Portuguese  literature.  This  Arte  Religiosa  de 
Portugal,  begun  in  1914,  is  published  monthly,  each  part 
containing  eight  beautifully  reproduced  plates,  and  costing 
500  reis  (about  two  shillings).  No  one  who  cares  for  art  will 
regret  subscribing  for  it,  and  certainly  after  seeing  these  plates 
they  will  never  think  of  Portugal  as  a  country  without  art. 
Nor  is  talent  lacking  in  painting  and  in  sculpture  at  the 
present  day  in  Portugal.  Witness  the  painters  Sr.  Bordallo 
Pinheiro,  Sr.  Carlos  Reis,  Sr.  Jose  Malhoa  and  others,  and  the 


Literature  151 

sculptors,  Sr.  Scares  dos  Reis  and  Sr.  Teixeira  Lopes,  whose 
E$a  de  Queiroz  statue  and  other  works  have  won  him  universal 
admiration.  In  art,  as  in  literature,  caricature  usually 
flourishes  in  Portugal,  and  it  is  perhaps  a  useful  corrective 
of  the  tendency  to  copiousness  and  vagueness  of  outline,  and, 
in  the  hands  of  clever  draughtsmen,  has  given  ample  proof 
that  it  need  not  degenerate  into  vulgarity.  The  fervent 
activity  in  many  fields  gives  good  hope,  at  any  rate,  of  a 
twentieth-century  crop  of  writers  and  artists  who  may 
maintain  or  surpass  the  achievement  of  the  nineteenth. 

The  restoration  of  the  Portuguese  language  to  its  original 
purity  is  an  essential  condition,  since  it  is  vain  to  hope  to 
gather  figs  from  thistles.  The  late  Gongalves 
Vianna,  Julio  Moreira,  and  others  watched 
over  Portuguese  with  loving  care,  and  it  is 
now  under  the  protection  of  the  celebrated  philologist  and 
folk-lorist,  Dr.  Jose  Leite  de  Vasconcellos.  But  all  may  do 
their  share  by  forswearing  and  rooting  out  Gallicisms  to  the 
best  of  their  knowledge  (Snr.  Candido  de  Figueiredo  does 
excellent  service  here),  and  when  the  ground  has  been  cleared 
of  these  noxious  weeds — Gallicisms,  abstractions,  trailing 
circumlocutions — Portuguese  literature  is  likely  to  thrive  as 
it  has  not  thriven  for  the  last  three  hundred  years. 


CHAPTER  IX 

PLAYS — GIL  VICENTE 

PORTUGUESE  writers  have  never  shown  a  marked  genius  for 
dramatic  action  in  their  works,  and  although  several  hundreds 
of  autos  were  written  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
and  AntoniQ-  Ferrrira  (1528-69)  introduced 
the  classical  drama  into  Portugal,  yet  drama 
might  almost  be  said  not  to  exist  in  Portugal  were  it  not 
for  two  great  writers :  Gil  Vicente,  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  and  Almeida  Garrett,  of  the  nineteenth.  Living 
Portuguese  writers  include  some  dramatic  authors  of  remark- 
able merit,  and  the  theatre  has  its  devoted  followers  in  Lisbon. 
But  the  opera  and  the  cinematograph  are  the  great  favourites, 
and  plays  often  owe  their  success  to  the  scenic  effects  rather 
than  to  the  drama  in  itself.  Gil  Vicente's  plays  in  the  six- 
teenth century  were,  we  know,  accompanied  by  lavish  scenic 
display,  but  their  dialogue  is  so  spirited,  life-like  and  natural 
that  they  scarcely  require  alien  adornments.  Several  of  these 
plays  have  been  recently  revived,  adapted  or  translated 
(from  Spanish  to  Portuguese)  by  the  poet  Snr.  Affonso  Lopes 
Vieira,  and  favourably  received  at  Lisbon. 

As,  together  with  the  totally  different  plays  of  Garrett, 
with  the  principal  of  which,  Frei  Luiz  de  Sousa,  English  readers 
are  familiar  in  the  translation  by  Mr.  Edgar 
Prestage  (Elkm  Mathews,  1909),  these  plays 
of  Gil  Vicente,  lyric  poet,  satirist,  goldsmith, 
playwright  and  actor,  form  the  chief  dramatic  baggage  of  the 
Portuguese,  it  will  not  be  amiss  to  give  a  few  extracts  from 
them.  But,  of  course,  to  be  fully  appreciated,  they  must  be 
read  whole,  and  a  forthcoming  critical  edition  will  make  this 
less  difficult  for  the  ordinary  reader  than  it  has  hitherto  been. 

152 


Plays— Gil  Vicente  153 

THE   BITER    BIT 

Servant  Girl.     Sir,  an  honest  lady  is  here  and  would  speak  with 

you. 

Merchant.    Let  her  come  in,  if  she  will,  for  I  am  free  at  present. 
Widow.     Look  here,  my  young  gossip,  do  not  you  betray  me. 
S.G.      Not  I,  by  my  life. 

W.      For  you  are  the  greatest  chatterer  I  saw  in  all  my  life. 
S.G.      Oh,  what  fun  !     And  should  I  tell  that  you  are  a  poor 

gentleman  without  a  horse  and  without  a  shilling,  dressed 

up  as  a  woman  to  deceive  a  thief  !  .  .  . 
W.      Good -day,  Sir. 

M.      Good-day,  senhora.     What  is  it  you  would  have  ? 
W.      I  will  tell  you  anon.     Ah  me,  how  tired  I  am,  how  tired  and 

worried. 

M.      Take  one  of  these  chairs. 

W.      Oh,  that  is  nothing  :   believe  me,  distress  knows  little  rest. 
M.      By  my  life  you  say  true,  and  I  agree  with  you  entirely. 
W.     I  say,  sir,  that  the  Lord  Treasurer  of  the.  noble  King  Telebano 

owes  me  last  year's  pension  won  in  the  sweat  of  my  brow. 
5.G.  (aside)  :    Yes,  a  fine  pension  of  your  imagination. 
M.      How  much  is  it  ? 
W.      This  note  will  tell  you. 
M .      Let  me  have  a  look  at  it.     I  congratulate  you  :  it  is  40,000 

rets. 
W.      Sir,  I  am  in  despair,  and  unless  you  buy  it  of  me,  they  will 

distrain  upon  my  goods  to-morrow. 

M.      No  more  of  that  ;    I  shall  certainly  do  nothing  of  the  kind. 
W.      That  is  not  a  good  answer. 
M.      And  what  of  the  penalty  imposed  by  law  ? 
W.      Our  agreement  will  be  secret. 
M.       Impossible. 
W.      Who  is  to  know  of  it  ? 
M.      When  I  go  to  change  this  note. 
W.       Do  not  reduce  me  to  despair.     You   will  know  how  to 

manage  it. 
M.      Well,  well,  I  will  be  an  arrant  fool,  simply  in  order  to  help 

you.     What  will  you  sell  for  ? 
W.      I  leave  that  to  your  conscience. 

M.      I  will  tell  you  :    10,000  reis  will  I  give  you,  cash  clown. 
W.      Ai  Jesu  !     Ho,  there  !    help  ! 

M.      I  will  not  give  more,  there's  no  use  in  further  discussion. 
W '.      Would  you  be  so  cruel  to  a  poor  widow  woman  ?     O,  what 

a  sad  thing  is  poverty,  abandoned  by  all ! 


154 


Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 


M.  No  more,  senhora. 

W.  Will  you  not  be  content  now  with  20,000,  one  half  ? 

M.  No,  nor  25,000,  I  may  tell  you. 

W.  Well,  let  me  have  them,  plague  upon  it. 

Moca  Senhor,  uma  dona  honrada 

'Sta  aqui  pera  vos  fallar. 
Mercador     Entre  ca,  s'ella  mandar, 

Que  eu  nao  faco  agora  nada. 
Viuva         Olha  ca,  mexeriqueirinha, 

Nao  me  descubras  tu  a  mi. 
Moca  Nao  farei  por  vida  minha. 

Viuva          Porque  es  a  mor  palreirinha 

Que  eu  em  minha  vida  vi. 
Mo  fa  Que  prazer  ! 

E  eu  havia  de  dizer 

Que  ereis  pobre  escudeirao 

Sem  cavallo  e  sem  tostao 

E  em  trajos  de  molher 

Que  is  enganar  um  ladrao  ! 

Viuva         Senhor,  embora  estejais. 
Mercador     Embora  estejais,  senhora. 

Que  e  o  que  demandais  ? 
V. .  Eu  o  direi  ora. 

Ai  coitada 

Que  venho  ora  tao  cansada 

Do  corpo  e  d'outras  canseiras. 
M.  Sentae-vos  nessas  cadeiras. 

V.  Esse  descanso  nao  e  nada  : 

Crede  que  a  necessidade 

Mui  pouco  descanso  tem. 
M.  Assi  viva  eu  que  6  verdade 

E  fallastes  muito  bem, 

Muito  4  minha  vontade. 
V.  Digo,  senhor, 

Que  o  thesoureiro  m6r 

Do  nobre  Rei  Dom  Telebano 

Me  deve  j4  do  outro  anno 

As  tencas  do  meu  suor. 
Moca     (dparte)  Tens  tu  la  tenpas  de  vento  ! 
M .  O  dinheiro  quanto  6  ? 

V.  Este  papel  dara  fe 

Que  6  o  seu  conhecimento. 
M .  Mostrae  ca,  verei  que  e. 

Bem  estais : 

Sao  quarenta  mil  reaes.1 
V.  Senhor  eu  'stou  enforcada 

E  se  vos  nao  m'os  comprais 

Amanha  sou  penhorada. 
M.  Nao  me  falleis  nisso  mais  ; 

Nao  farei  eutal  por  certo. 

1  That  is,  nearly  thrice  the  pension   (15,000  rtis)  given  by  King 
Sebastian  to  the  poet  Camoes. 


Plays— Gil  Vicente  155 


V.  Nao  e  essa  boa  resposta. 

Af .  E  a  pena  que  esta  posta  ? 

V.  Sera  secreto  o  concerto. 

M .  Nao  pode  ser. 

F.  Quern  ha  isso  de  saber  ? 

A/.  Quando  os  for  arrecadar. 

2V.  Nao  me  queirais  desconsolar  ; 

Vos  o  sabereis  fazer. 
M.  Ora  emfim,  quero  ser  tolo  sandeu 

E  s6  por  vos  soccorrer. 

tuanto  m'os  quereis  vender  ? 
m  vossa  alma  o  deixo  eu. 
M.  Eu  vos  direi : 

Dez  mil  reaes  vos  darei, 

Estes  logo  em  bons  tostoes. 
V ' .  Ai  Jesu  !   aquidelrei ! 

M.  Eu  d'aqui  nao  passarei, 

Nem  passemos  mais  rezoes. 
V.  A  uma  viuva  amara 

Fazeis  tamanha  crueza  ? 

Oh  coitada  da  pobreza 

Que  tudo  o  desempara  ! 
Af.  No  mais,  senhora. 

V.  Nao  vos  content  areis  or  a 

Com  vinte  mil,  que  e  metade  ? 
M .  Nem  com  mais  cinco,  em  verdade. 

Dae-m'os  ja  com  a  ma  ora. 1 

Of  the  scenes  which  follow  only  the  English  version  is  here 
given — 

PEASANTS   GOING    TO    THE   FAIR 

Amancio  Vaz.     Are  you  going  to  the  fair,  compadre  ? 

Deniz  Lourenco.     To  the  fair,  compadre. 

A.      So.     Let  us  go  together,  you  and  me,  along  this  stream. 

D.      Let  us  go,  in  sooth. 

A .      I  am  very  glad  to  find  you  here. 

D.      Are  you  going  to  see  some  one  or  do  you  mean  to  buy  ? 

A.  I  will  tell  you,  and  we  will  talk  as  we  go,  and  have  a  look  at 
the  village  girls.  Compadre,  my  wife  has  a  very  difficult 
temper,  and  now,  God  willing,  I  am  thinking  of  selling 
her,  and  will  give  her  for  next  to  nothing. 

D.  Your  wife  is  good  enough,  I  don't  know  what  is  the  matter 
with  you,  my  friend. 

A .      If  she  had  married  you,  you  would  complain  just  as  I  do  now. 

D.  Well,  as  to  mine,  compadre,  she  is  so  slack  and  clumsy  that 
she  can  never  knead  bread  without  knocking  over  the 
flour.  .  .  . 

1  Obras,  vol.  ii,  p.   143-6.     Floresta  de  Enganos. 


156  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

(Later  enter  Branca  Annes,  wife  of  A.,  and  Marta  Dias, 
wife  of  D.} 

B.A.  Since  in  so  ill  an  hour  I  married,  cousin,  and  such  a 
husband,  I  will  buy  a  tub  here  and  keep  him  under  it,  and 
a  great  stone  on  top.  For  he  goes  to  the  fig-trees  and 
eats  ripe  and  unripe,  and  all  my  hung  grapes  he  devours 
till  he  seems  a  very  rubbish  heap.  He  goes  for  the  plums 
before  they  are  ripe,  he  breaks  down  the  cherry  trees,  and 
as  to  the  grapes  of  the  vines  I  don't  know  what  he  does 
with  them.  He  eats  all  day,  sleeps  all  night,  never  does 
anything,  and  is  always  telling  me  that  he  is  hungry. 

M.       To  me  he  seems  a  good  husband. 1 

THE   COURSE  OF   TRUE   LOVE 

Joanne.  Have  you  seen  my  brown  smock  ?  When  you  do  you 
will  lose  your  wits,  it  looks  so  well,  so  well.  What  in 
the  world  is  this,  you  will  say. 

Catalina.  O,  what  a  simpleton  !  Do  not  open  your  mouth  if 
anyone  is  at  hand. 

/.  O,  to  the  devil  with  such  a  life  as  mine  !  Catalina,  if  I  take 
it  into  my  head,  I  will  go  as  soon  as  anything.  Is  not 
there  India  ?  What  good  am  I  doing  here  ?  Better  to  go. 

C.  And  what  is  that  to  me  ?  There  comes  Fernando.  Good- 
day,  Fernando.  I  waited  for  you  at  the  pass. 

Fernando.      Is  Madanella  here  ? 

C.  And  why  are  you  looking  for  her  ?  Have  you  taken  a 
dislike  to  me  ? 

J.      Really,  Catalina  ? 

C.      No  more,  consider  that  you  have  left  me. 

/.      Really,  Catalina  ? 

F.     You  don't  say  where  Madanella  is  gone. 

C.      Why  do  you  ask  for  her  ? 

F.      Because  so  fortune  wills. 

C.      A  plague  upon  you. 

/.  Really,  Catalina  ?  Well,  if  I  had  known  this,  I  wouldn't 
have  given  you  the  distaff  that  I  brought  from  Santarem. J 

THE   DISCONTENTED    PEASANT 

Fret  Paco.     What  are  you  grumbling  at,  peasant  ? 
Peasant.     At  God,  who  clearly  has  a  great  spite  against  me. 
P.P.      But  what  do  you  complain  of  ? 
P.      He  drives  me  to  despair. 

1  Obras,  I,  pp.  167-71.     Auto  da  Feira. 


Plays— Gil  Vicente  157 

P.P.     But  how  ? 

P.  He  sends  rain  when  I  don't  want  it,  and  when  I  would  have 
some  rain  the  very  stars  glow  like  the  sun.  Now  He 
swamps  the  newly  sown  fields  or  parches  everything,  or 
sends  a  cruel  wind  or  snow  to  kill  the  flocks,  and  little 
He  cares.  And  if  I  would  sue  Him  for  damage  done  by 
lightning  and  thunder,  hail  and  frost,  who  is  to  find  out 
His  dwelling  and  summon  Him  !  He  cares  for  no  one, 
and  will  do  as  He  likes.  He  might  do  me  good  and  no 
one  a  penny  the  worse,  but  not  a  bit  of  it.  And  so  I  say 
He  has  a  grudge  against  me,  and  if  you  doubt  it  you  have 
but  to  look  at  my  year's  harvest. 

P.P.      Do  you  think,  then,  God  lives  with  you  ? 

P.  Look  you,  padre,  what  I  say  is,  let  Him  temper  the  winter's 
rages,  and  let  the  corn  ripen,  but  He  in  his  spite  without 
gaining  a  farthing  by  it,  sends  rain  in  January  and  frost 
in  April,  and  summer  heat  in  February,  mists  in  the 
month  of  May,  and  hail  in  mid- July.  I  toil  till  I  drop, 
and  He  in  whose  care  I  am  makes  it  ever  worse  for  me. 

P.P.      Consider  if  you  duly  pay  Him  what  is  His. 

P.  I  would  pay  my  tithes  willingly  enough  if  He  in  sheer  malice 
did  not  damage  what  is  His  and  mine. 

P.P.  And  do  you  ever  pray  to  Him  to  free  you  from  these 
troubles  ? 

P.  Much  store  He  sets  on  my  prayers.  I  pray  quite  enough. 
I  don't  know  how  it  is,  but  everything  is  done  at  His  good 
pleasure.  He  killed  my  father  and  my  master,  and  then 
my  wife.  Ask  yourself  why  He  should  kill  my  aunt 
with  all  her  charities,  and  leave  the  tax-gatherers,  who 
plague  me  daily. 

P.P.  They  say  there  is  no  better  gift  than  good  advice.  Do 
then  as  I  bid  you  :  conform  yourself  with  the  will  of  God, 
and  make  good  sense  your  mirror. 

P.  Let  Him  conform  Himself  with  me.  I  am  poor  as  a  dog, 
and  tell  Him  so  daily,  and  He,  it  may  be,  rejoices.  Offering 
and  prayer  avail  me  not  a  whit  :  now  He  gives  but  straw 
without  grain,  and  now  neither  grain  nor  straw,  but  only 
infinite  oppression.  Therefore,  I  would  have  this  boy  of 
mine  enter  the  Church,  not  that  he  is  especially  inclined 
that  way,  but  that  he  may  live  a  life  of  greater  ease. 
If  you,  padre,  will  teach  him,  all  I  have  will  be  yours. 

P.P.      Yes,  if  he  is  so  minded. 

P.      He  has  intelligence  for  anything,  and  a  good  singing  voice. 

P.P.      Here,  take  this  paper,  and  read  those  verses. 


158  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

Sebastian.     Is  this  for  cummin  or  must  I  go  for  saffron  ? 

P.P.      You  know  nothing  at  all. 

S.      I  know  where  the  village  shop  is. 

P.      He  is  as  sharp  as  a  sword,  there  isn't  a  goat  in  the  herd  that 

he  doesn't  know. 

P.P.      Come  now,  without  more  ado,  say  the  A  B  C  D  E. 
5.      'A  be  seedy. 
P.P.      Say  A  X. 

5.      Aex  was  a  tailor  who  lived  by  the  Cathedral. 
P.      If  your  life  is  spared,  Sebastian,  you  will  make  a  fine  scholar. 
S.      It  looks  as  if  the  plough  had  been  at  work  among  these 

letters. 
P.P.      You  need  much  examining.     And  now,  as  to  Latin  :   say 

Beatus  vir. 
S.      O,  that  is  easy  enough  :    Bi  ora  tres  ratos  vir  (I  saw  three 

mice). 
P.      See  what  learning  ! l 


THE   COURTIER   PRIEST 

Prey  Paco  enters  in  cassock  and  cape,  with  velvet  cap  and 
gloves  and  gilt  sword,  mincing  like  a  very  sweet  courtier, 
and  says  : 

He  who  sees  me  enter  with  such  antics  will  think  I  am 
gone  mad  till  he  knows  that  I  am  Frey  Pa9o.  Glory  be 
to  God  and  For  ever  and  ever  are  not  for  me,  but  a  gilt  sword, 
since  it  looks  well  to  wear  a  sword  at  court.  So  refined 
am  I  ;  and  that  there  should  be  no  doubt  of  it,  I  had  an 
excellent  idea  :  I  never  let  them  shave  my  tonsure.  So 
do  not  expect  me  to  address  you  with  Glory  to  God  or 
Praised  be  Jesus  Christ,  for  all  my  priest's  frock.  And 
I  am  so  finished  a  courtier  that  I  may  well  say  that  the 
psalms  I  recite  are — envy  and  gossip.  My  speech  is 
gentle  and  courteous  with  great  store  of  compliments. 
Expect  no  deeds  from  me  but  be  content  with  words  borne 
away  by  the  wind.  Favour  and  disaffection  am  I,  the 
protector  of  lovers  ;  I  disillusion  those  who  trust  me  and 
am  the  very  temple  of  the  god  of  love  and  the  hell  of  the 
love-lorn.  But  since  the  law  of  love  is  changed,  and 
everything  grows  cold,  I  love  now  by  agreement  and  sigh 
to  order.  2 

1  Obras,  II,  pp.  498-502.     Romagem  de  Aggravados. 
a  Obras,  II,  pp.  496-7.     Rom.  de  Agg. 


Plays— Gil  Vicente  159 

FREI   PA  CO   GIVES   A    LESSON   IN   COURT 
MANNERS 

Frei  Pafo.  My  friend,  a  noble  lady  must  be  rich  and  fair,  sensitive, 
serene,  courteous,  gentle,  charming. 

Aparifo.     Giralda  is  all  that. 

P.P.      Let  us  see  how  this  head-dress  suits  her. 

A.      Away,  away  with  it,  it  is  not  fit  for  anyone  to  wear. 

P.P.  You  mean,  peasant,  that  it  is  not  for  harvesters  but  for 
the  Court. 

A .  It  is  a  magpie's  tail,  and  not  for  a  woman  to  wear  ;  so  thinks 
Apari£o. 

P.P.      Yet  it  didn't  suit  her  ill. 

A .     Who  ever  saw  a  sparrow  with  its  tail  at  the  back  of  its  head  ! 

P.P.      I'm  afraid  she  will  not  suit. 

A.      Why? 

P.P.      Well,  she  has  not  the  air. 

A.  She  has  been  treading  grapes  in  the  wine-press  and  is  all 
stained,  but  she  will  go  and  have  a  wash.  .  .  . 

P.P.      Drop  me  a  curtsey  now.     Let  us  see  how  she  does  it. 

G.      This  side  or  that  ? 

P.P.  See  what  a  manner  for  the  Court  !  My  fine  lady  keeper 
of  goats,  you  must  do  thus.  Did  you  mark  me  ?  And 
make  the  steps  so.  Do  you  understand  ?  And  you  will 
look  thus,  with  lofty  mien,  your  body  very  straight, 
laughing  little  and  subtly,  with  a  spice  of  honest  deceit. 
To  speak  only  occasionally  is  excellent.  You  must  not 
be  in  love  nor  give  love  over,  and  to  show  that  you  are 
fancy-free  be  careful  not  to  sigh.1 

MOFINA    MENDES 

Payo.  Since  it  is  the  will  of  God  that  I  should  pay  so  harmful 
a  shepherdess,  in  reward  for  your  trouble,  take  this  pot 
of  oil  and  go  and  sell  it  at  the  fair,  and  perhaps  you  will 
prosper,  since  I  cannot  with  you  in  my  service. 

Mofina.  Straightway  in  God's  name  to  the  fair  of  Trancoso 
will  I  go,  and  will  make  much  money.  With  the  money 
of  the  oil  I  will  buy  ducks'  eggs,  which  is  the  cheapest 
thing  I  can  get  there,  and  each  egg  hatched  will  give 
me  a  duck  and  every  duck  a  shilling.  At  a  low  price  they 
will  yield  over  a  million  and  a  half  (r&is  ?} .  These  ducks' 
eggs  will  bring  me  a  rich  and  honourable  marriage,  and 
on  the  day  of  my  wedding  I  will  go  dressed  in  a  robe  of 
scarlet,  and  before  me  the  bridegroom  will  go  courting  me. 
1  Obras,  II,  pp.  520-2.  Rom.  de  Aggr 


160  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

I  will  come  from  within  dancing  a  dance  like  this  and 
singing  this  song. 

(So  speaks  Mofina  Mendes  with  the  pot  of  oil  on  her  head, 

and  as  she  gives  her  mind  ever  more  to  the  dancing, 

it  falls  off.} l 

VANITY  OF    VANITIES 

Nigger.  All  the  world  is  weariness, 

To  be  a  great  lord,  weariness  ; 

Or  a  poor  man,  weariness  ; 

A  lovely  woman,  weariness  ; 

An  ugly  woman,  weariness  ; 

A  negro  slave,  weariness  ; 

Or  the  slave's  master,  weariness  ; 

To  go  to  Mass,  weariness  ; 

And  a  long  sermon,  weariness  ; 

A  priest  without  a  wife,  weariness; 

A  priest  with  a  wife,  weariness, 

Great  weariness  ; 

An  unmarried  nobleman,  weariness  ; 

Much  rain,  weariness  ; 

Or  no  rain,  weariness  ; 

To  have  many  children,  weariness  ; 

Or  to  have  none  at  all,  weariness  ; 

To  be  the  Pope  in  Rome,  weariness  ; 

Or  that  peasant  there,  weariness  ; 

Not  to  go  to  Paradise,  great  weariness  ; 

All,  all  the  world  is  but  weariness.  • 

THE   POOR   GENTLEMAN 

Ordonho.     Who  is  your  master,  brother,  say  ? 

Aparifo.  O,  it  is  the  devil  himself.  Year  in,  year  out,  we  are 
both  dead  of  hunger  and  misery. 

O.      Who  does  he  pass  the  time  with  ? 

A .      What  do  I  know  !     He  goes  about  like  a  scalded  dog. 

O.      And  what  is  his  occupation  ? 

A.  That  of  a  fool.  Combing  his  hair  and  fasting,  all  day 
without  food,  singing  and  playing  on  the  guitar,  sighing 
and  yawning.  He  is  ever  talking  to  himself,  and  the  verses 
he  makes  are  so  cold  and  insipid  and  senseless  that  they 
make  one  pity  him.  And  the  airs  he  gives  himself  ! 

1  Obras,  I,  pp.  115-6.     Auto  de  Mofina  Mendes. 
a  Obras,  III,  pp.  244-5  :   O  Clerigo  da  Beira. 


Plays— Gil  Vicente  161 

That  is  what  enrages  me.  I  have  been  in  his  service 
three  years  and  have  never  seen  him  with  half  a  crown, 
but  in  our  expenditure  a  shilling  lasts  a  month. 

O.      Mercy  on  us,  what  do  you  eat  ? 

A.      Not  even  of  bread  do  we  eat  our  fill. 

O.      And  his  horse  ? 

A.  Skin  and  bones,  the  bones  piercing  the  skin.  I  and  the 
horse  and  he  eat  scarcely  anything.  Yet  you  should 
see  him  boasting  and  pretending  to  be  a  valiant  knight, 
and  singing  his  own  praises  the  whole  live-long  day. 
But  the  other  day,  in  an  alley  there,  they  gave  him  a  fine 
thrashing.  O,  such  a  thrashing  ! 

O.      What  with  ? 

A.      With  an  old  stick. 

O.      Ha,  ha,  ha,  ha,  ha,  ha,  ha  ! 

A.      It  gave  me  such  pleasure. 

O.      And  he  said  nothing  ? 

A.  Took  it  without  a  word,  blow  on  blow.  He  comes  home 
late  at  night,  being  shut  in  the  house  all  day  since  he  dare 
not  show  himself  on  account  of  his  clothes.  And  he  calls 
out  gaily,  "  To  supper,"  as  if  he  had  supper  ready.  And 
I  have  nothing  for  him,  and  he  has  nothing  for  me  to  give 
him.  And  he  takes  a  crust  of  bread  and  a  shrivelled 
turnip  and  fastens  his  teeth  in  it  like  a  dog.  I  don't  know 
how  he  keeps  up  his  strength. 1 

THE   MOLD'S   COMPLAINT 

Do  they  call  a  chest  a  bed  here  or  is  there  no  meaning 
in  words  !  All  my  nights  in  his  house  were  nights  spent 
in  an  open  boat  at  sea,  not  to  speak  of  other  evils.  Senhor 
Judge,  I  have  been  six  years  in  this  gentleman's  service, 
and  might  have  been  a  barber  by  now  but  for  his  false 
promises.  When  I  entered  his  service  he  was  in  better 
plight,  but  now,  good  lack,  it  is  all  up  with  him,  and  his 
guitar,  and  his  horse,  and  his  bed,  and  his  clothes,  and 
my  service,  and  all  the  rest.  This  last  night,  as  I  lay  ill 
at  ease  on  a  chest  with  my  feet  hanging  over,  he  woke  me 
up  at  one  o'clock,  and  :  "  O,  if  you  knew,  Fernando,  what 
verses  I  have  just  made."  He  bids  me  light  the  lamp  and 
hold  the  inkstand  for  him,  and  there  was  his  dog  howling 
and  I  standing  there  cursing  because  in  my  first  sleep  my 
master  must  needs  make  verses.  2 

1  Obras,  III,  pp.  5-7  :    Quern  tern  farelos  ? 

2  Obras,  III,  pp.  179-80  :    O  Jmz  da  Beira. 

ii— (2404) 


162  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

THE   NOBLEMAN'S   CHAPLAIN 

Chaplain.     Senhor,  it  seems  time.  .  .  . 

Nobleman.     Say  on,  padre,  say  on. 

C.  I  say  that  it  is  close  on  three  years  that  I  have  been  your 
chaplain. 

N.      Most  true.     Say  on. 

C.      And  I  might  have  been  the  Prince's  or  even  the  King's. 

N.      In  good  sooth,  I  don't  know  about  that,  padre. 

C.  Yes,  indeed,  I  might,  though  I  am  in  your  service.  Consider 
then,  sir,  what  you  will  give  me,  for,  besides  serving  at 
the  altar,  I  was  employed  to  buy  provisions. 

N.      I  won't  deny  it.     Draw  me  up  a  petition  of  all  your  claims. 

C.  Senhor,  do  not  put  me  off,  for  the  matter  has  no  ending, 
as  perhaps  you  wish,  for  indeed  I  am  become  for  you  both 
clergyman  and  man  of  business. 

N.  And  I  have  given  you  favours,  yes,  so  far  as  my  poor  means 
allowed,  have  done  more  for  you  than  others  do.  For 
what  more  does  a  clergyman  want  in  wages  or  income 
than  that  he  should  be  given  his  food — a  good  penny  a 
day — and  allowed  to  live  as  he  wills.  And  think  of  the 
honour  !  "  He  is  chaplain  of  So-and-So." 

C.  Yes,  and  what  about  clothes,  and  meals  snatched  anyhow, 
and  sleeping  so  ill  at  ease  that  my  head  lies  on  the  floor 
without  a  pillow,  and  always  at  one  o'clock  in  the  morning 
Mass  before  the  chase  ?  And  to  please  you,  moreover, 
I  served  you  out  of  doors,  even  buying  fish  in  the  market- 
place. And  other  errands  too,  ill  befitting  my  dignity. 
Indeed,  indeed,  sir,  I  was  your  carrier  on  the  high  road, 
driven  this  way  and  that  ;  and  I  had  charge  of  the  cats 
and  of  the  negroes  in  the  kitchen,  and  I  used  to  clean  your 
boots  for  you,  and  do  many  another  thing  besides. 

N.  Yes,  I  trusted  you  with  all  my  alms-giving,  and  you  gave 
for  the  love  of  God,  and  I  never  asked  you  for  accounts. 

C.  For  the  three  years  to  which  I'm  referring  I  can  give  them 
now  without  more  ado.  You  once  bade  me  give 
twopence  to  a  blind  man  in  charity. 

N.      I'm  not  denying  it.1 

THE  POOR   NOBLEMAN 

Page.     Sir,  the  goldsmith  is  here. 

Nobleman.  Show  him  in.  He  will  be  wanting  money.  Good- 
day  to  you,  sir.  Put  your  hat  on,  please.  You  have  a 

1  Obras,  III,  pp.  203-5  :    Faff  a  dos  Almocreves. 


Plays— Gil  Vicente  163 

great  friend  in  me,  and  one  who  sings  your  merits.     I  was 

praising  you  only  yesterday  to  the  King  with  all  my  might, 

and  I  know  he  will  employ  you,  and  I  will  help  you  in 

this  as  often  as  I  can.     For  sometimes  such  help  is  better 

than  a  pension,   and  you  know  well  the  value  of  your 

reputation  and  other  such  things. 
Goldsmith.   Sir,  I  will  serve  him  with  all  my  heart. 
N.      Do  you  know  what  I  like  about  you — I  said  so  to  the  King, 

and  it  is  greatly  to  your  credit  :    you  do  not  mind  if  you 

are  paid  or  left  unpaid.     I  never  saw  such  patience,  such 

superiority,  such  a  will  to  please. 
G.      Our  account  is  so  small  and  so  long  overdue  that  it  is  dying 

of    hope    deferred,    and    to    present    it    fills    me    with 

presentiment. 
N.      O,  how  skilfully  you  limn  your  speech.      Glad  indeed  am 

I  not  to  have  paid  you  so  as  to  hear  you  hammer  out  your 

words  so  well. 
G.      Sir,  I  kiss  your  hands,  but  would  gladly  see  what  is  mine 

in  mine. 
N.      Another  courtier's  phrase  !     "  Sir,  I  kiss  your  hands,  but 

would  gladly  see  what  is  mine  in  mine  !  "     O,  what  fine 

flowers  of  speech  ! 1 

1  Ibid.,  pp.  208-9. 


CHAPTER  X 

POLITICS   AND   THE   PRESS 

IT  is  the  misfortune  of  existing  Portuguese  politics  and  of  the 
Portuguese  Press  that  the  party-leader  is  often  a  newspaper- 
editor.  If  we  imagine  Mr.  Balfour  as  Leader 
Thep^tical  of  the  Conservatives  and  editor  and  leader- 
writer  of  the  Morning  Post,  Mr.  Asquith  as 
Leader  of  the  Liberals  and  editor  of  the  Westminster  Gazette, 
Mr.  Lloyd  George  at  the  Daily  Chronicle^  Mr.  Ramsay  Mac- 
donald  at  a  paper  of  his  own,  we  have  some  idea  on  a  large 
scale  of  the  state  of  affairs  in  Portugal.  "  Men  are  rarely  good 
judges  in  their  own  interests,"  one  of  the  characters  in  Fran- 
cisco de  Sa  de  Miranda's  play,  Os  Vilhalpandos,  informs  us. 
The  Latin  temperament,  with  its  many  merits  and  excellences, 
its  logical  and  intelligent  outlook,  rarely  has  the  quality  of 
objective  justice.  It  is  too  fervent  and  impassioned,  loves  and 
hates  too  ardently  to  pause  to  consider  coldly  the  fairness  of 
a  matter.  All  the  more  welcome  would  be  some  independent 
organs  in  the  Lisbon  Press,  some  steadying  element,  some  kind 
of  Portuguese  Spectator.  As  to  partisan  newspapers,  there 
are  far  too  many  of  them. 

At  Lisbon  alone — if  we  include  all  kinds  and  descriptions 
of  periodical  publications — there  are  upwards  of  a  hundred, 
and  the  majority  of  these  are  political.     There 
Journalism.      are    too    many    writers,    who    drift    from    a 
Coimbra  degree  into  journalism  at  Lisbon, 
and  who  consider  it  far  less  important  to  write  good  Portu- 
guese than  to  drag  in  some  French  or  Latin  quotation  in  and 
out  of  season,  and  most  often  misspelt. 

It  is  worth  while  to  consider  the  sad  case  of  the  Portuguese 
language,  since  it  is  or  might  be  one  of  the  finest  languages 
in  Europe.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  Bible  Society  will 
distribute  far  and  wide  the  Portuguese  translation  of  the 

164 


Politics  and  the  Press  165 

Bible  by  Joao  Ferreira  d' Almeida  among  all,  peasants  and 
others,  who  can  read.  It  may  not  convert  them  to  Protes- 
tantism, but  will  lay  the  basis  for  a  revival  of 
the  Portuguese  language,  murdered  daily  in 
the  Press.  It  is  not  only  the  Latin  tags  that 
are  misspelt ;  in  spite  of  the  intricate  official  rules  drawn  up 
for  Portuguese  spelling,  it  remains  unfixed,  and  words  are 
sometimes  transformed  almost  out  of  recognition.  E,  being 
often  pronounced  as  i,  becomes  so  written,  s  takes  the  place 
of  c,  and  when  these  and  other  errors  combine  the  result  is 
remarkable  ;  for  instance,  "  scepticism  "  becomes  siticismo, 
"  miscellany  "  mecellanea,  and  so  forth.  The  most  minute 
rules  of  Portuguese  orthography  were  drawn  up  after  the 
Revolution.  They  went  so  far  as  to  forbid  you  to  write 
Sarah,  while  permitting  ah  and  oh,  with  final  H(aga).  The 
confusion  has  only  become  worse  confounded. 

The  Portuguese  language  as  spoken  in  the  provinces  and  by 
the  peasants  is  far  clearer  and  more  attractive  than  as  it  is 
often  spoken  at  Lisbon.  As  to  the  written 
Polysyllables,  language,  it  is  too  often  debased  by  Gallicisms 
and  by  sesquipedalian  words.  It  appears  to 
shun  directness  like  the  plague.  A  "  large  crowd  "  becomes 
an  "  innumerable  multitude,"  a  "  fine  view  "  is  an  "  admirable 
panorama,"  a  horse  is  a  solipede,  a  dog  is  um  exemplar  canino 
(0  Seculo,  21st  June,  1915).  The  terse  phrase,  "  Wait  and 
see,"  translated  into  modern  Portuguese,  would  become 
"  Will  you  have  the  goodness  to  adopt  an  attitude  of  expecta- 
tion and  devote  yourself  to  a  consideration  of  the 
progress  of  events."  A  sentence  is  often  a  great  wave 
of  abstract  terms  which  leaves  the  reader  stunned  and 
breathless.  Take  the  following  from  the  Parnasso  Por- 
tuguez  Moderno  (Lisbon,  1877)  :  "A  par  das  grandes 
descobertas  scientificas  do  nosso  seculo  que  pela  via 
inductiva  conduziram  a  demonstragao  integral  dos  pheno- 
menos  cosmicos  pelo  movimento  etherodynamico."  All  that 
this  really  means  is  "  Beside  the  great  discoveries  made  by 


166  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

science  in  our  time  in  cosmic  phenomena."  Or  attempt  to 
extract  the  character  of  the  unfortunate  Luis  de  Camoes  from 
this :  "  A  forma  da  genialidade  de  Camoes  nao  foi  a  de  uma 
sobrexcitagao  da  sensibilidade  mantendo  em  estado  morbido  os 
elementos  nervosos  ;  a  boa  cultura  synthetica,  completandose 
pela  synessia  da  sua  vida  em  diversissimos  meios  teve  um 
objectivo  para  onde  convergiram  todas  as  assimilisacoes 
mentaes  e  adapta9oes  praticas."  In  a  single  page  of  one  recent 
novel  occur  no  less  than  fourteen  abstract  words  ending  in  -ode. 
Yet  there  is  ample  evidence  to  show  that  Portuguese  at  its 
best  is  well  qualified  to  rival  or  even  excel  Castilian.  It  has 

by  nature  that  softness  and  pliancy  which 
Portuguese  Castilian  only  attains  exceptionally,  at 

the  hands  of  genius,  and  in  Portuguese  it  is 
for  the  master  hand  to  give  this  language  that  force  and  con- 
cision which  comes  naturally  to  the  Castilian,  and  which 
was  once  a  characteristic  of  Portuguese  also.  The  saying, 
"  Fortune  usually  kicks  a  man  when  he's  down,"  is  expressed 
in  Portuguese  in  three  words,  "  Sobre  queda  coices  "•  "  after 
fall  kicks,"  and  innumerable  words  are  in  Portuguese  reduced 
to  half  the  length  they  have  in  Latin  and  in  other  modern 
Romance  languages.  Solus,  alone,  becomes  so  ;  dolor,  grief, 
dor,  major  mor.  As  to  its  softness,  delightful  words  such  as 
chuva,  rain,  and  all  those  words  expressive  of  bitter-sweet 
regret  and  similar  feelings — saudade,  saudoso,  meigo,  mavioso 
—occur  continually.  But  the  tendency  has  been  always  to 
praise  and  exaggerate  this  softness,  whereas  it  needs  a  cor- 
rective of  terseness  if  it  is  not  to  become  excessive.  Even 
occasional  harshnesses  of  construction  are  not  amiss.  The 
uglinesses  and  thicknesses  of  Portuguese  pronunciation  and 
spelling  are  of  comparatively  modern  growth.  Open  some 
folio  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  you  will  find  not  the  nasal 
ao,  but  the  straightforward  am,  not  prompto  but  pronto,  not 
lucta  but  luta,  not  tracto  but  trato — everything  clearer  and  more 
direct.  And  as  the  scholar  goes  to  his  books  the  politician 
must  turn  to  the  people,  not  the  people  to  which  the  Lisbon 


Politics  and  the  Press  167 

political  press  addresses  itself,  but  the  inhabitants  of  the 
remote  provinces  which  have  remained  as  stationary  as  old 
folios  in  a  convent  library,  and  preserve  many  uncorrupted 
excellences  of  language  and  custom.  And  indeed  this  is  no 
matter  of  vain  pedantry :  for  unless  the  language,  and  the 
citizens  too,  hark  back  to  the  sixteenth  century,  they  are 
doomed  to  perish.  No  great  literature  can  come  of  Portu- 
guese as  it  is  at  present  too  often  spoken  and  written,  and 
without  a  literature  a  nation  dwindles  and  dies.  (Witness 
the  Basques,  who  have  the  vigour  of  six  ordinary  nations,  and 
are  losing  their  language  and  nationality  because  they  have 
never  given  much  attention  to  the  written  word,  content  with 
their  splendid  old  games  and  customs.)  It  is  a  pity  that 
the  passion  for  politics  in  Portugal  has  not  inspired  its  devotees 
with  nobler  prose  ;  though  there  are  some  journalists  who  are 
also  men  of  letters,  the  majority  of  articles  published  are 
scarcely  written  in  anything  worthy  of  the  name  of  prose,  and 
this  is  the  more  regrettable  as  politics  in  Portugal  stretches  its 
net  so  wide,  and  thousands  read  the  newspaper  who  have 
never  opened  a  book. 

Nearly  a  century  ago,  that  is  at  about  the  time  of  the 
introduction  into  Portugal  of  constitutional  government,  a 
Portuguese  writer  proposed  that  the  vanity 
of  his  countrymen  should  be  turned  to 
account  by  bestowing  such  titles  as  Viscount 
and  Baron  on  rich  persons  according  as  they  built  a  large  or 
small  number  of  houses,  a  large  or  small  village  in  the  more 
deserted  parts  of  the  country.  Succeeding  governments 
seemed  to  adopt  the  suggestion,  only  the  titles  were  given 
systematically  to  those  rich  brazileiros  and  others  who  paid 
in  so  many  contos  to  the  public  exchequer  or  who  helped  by 
their  local  influence  to  win  an  election.  Thus,  politics  became 
more  and  more  a  dreadful  octopus,  its  tentacles  closing  round 
and  crushing  the  life  out  of  the  nation.  Even  those  who  do 
not  know  a  ballot-box  from  a  sheep-trough  or  a  Minister 
from  a  counter-jumper,  find  themselves  compelled  to  take  part 


168  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

in  politics.  They  may  gain  nothing  from  it,  but  they  cannot 
escape  it.  And  if  a  man  wishes  to  get  anything  done,  if  he 
desires  a  road  mended,  a  church  built,  a  son  placed,  a  title 
conferred,  an  opponent  imprisoned,  it  is  possible  to  arrange 
the  matter,  by  means  of  politics.  As  to  Lisbon,  of  course, 
it  would  not  be  Lisbon  were  it  not  for  politics.  Alas  for  the 
clubs  of  the  Chiado,  the  cafes  of  the  Rocio,  the  arcades  of 
Black  House  Square,  and  even  the  shops,  the  streets,  the 
prafas,  where  men  do  gather  together  and  gossip,  were  there 
not  a  new  government  to  discuss  every  three  or  four  months. 
The  country  may  be  driven  to  the  dogs  by  these  continual 
changes,  but  the  politicians,  amateur  and  professional,  are 
in  clover.  And  indeed  this  soft  air  and  warm  sun  needs  a 
spice  of  maledicencia  and  criticism  of  politicians.  In  England 
the  climate  affords  an  abundant  topic,  in  Portugal  the  days 
are  often  monotonously  beautiful,  sometimes  monotonously 
rainy,  so  that  whereas  people  in  England  discuss  a  late  fall  of 
snow  or  an  early  frost,  in  Portugal  they  pass  the  time  over  the 
fall  of  the  Government  or  a  partial  ministerial  crisis.  A 
wonderful  amount  of  excellent  wit  and  intelligence  is  expended 
over  the  subject,  and  it  is  extraordinary  how  every  shopkeeper 
even,  every  newspaper-boy  almost,  has  his  political  views, 
his  favourite  politician.  Men  whose  education  consists  in 
being  able  to  spell  out  the  newspaper  of  their  predilection  will 
discuss  the  political  situation  with  considerable  eloquence 
and  knowledge.  Each  political  group  counts  as  many  real 
adherents  as  may  fit  into  a  not  very  large  hall,  and  each 
politician  who  takes  office  is  the  target  at  which  all  the  other 
political  groups  aim  the  shafts  of  their  ridicule. 

Nowhere  have  political  parties  been  more  numerous  and 
more  picturesque  in  their  names  and  their  theories  than  in 
Spain  and  Portugal.  In  Spain  at  a  recent 
general  election  members  of  nearly  a  dozen 
political  parties  were  returned  to  Parliament, 
and  in  Portugal  since  the  introduction  of  constitutional  govern- 
ment there  have  been  Cartistas  and  Septembristas,  Rege ner  adores, 


Politics  and  the  Press  169 

Dissidentes,  Reformistas,  Nacionalistas,  Progressistas,  and 
since  the  Revolution  of  1910,  Evolucionistas,  Independentes, 
Reformistas,  Integralistas,  Unionistas,  and  Democratas.  These 
are  but  a  few  of  the  many  parties  which  have  misinterpreted 
and  abused  the  Parliamentary  system  in  Portugal,  some  of 
them  with  names  and  actions  as  vague  as  Emilio  Castelar's 
celebrated  Posibilistas.  To  take  the  present  time  there  are 
the  "  Democrats  "  under  the  leadership  of  Dr.  Affonso  August o 
da  Costa  (their  chief  newspaper  organs  are  0  Mundo,  A  Montonho 
and  A  Patria),  the  "  Evolutionists  "  under  the  leadership  of 
Dr.  Jose  Antonio  de  Almeida  (organ,  A  Republica),  the 
"  Unionists,"  led  by  Dr.  Manuel  Brito  Camacho  (A  Lucta), 
the  "  Independents  "  or  Reformistas  under  Senhor  Machado 
Santos  (0  Intransigents).  The  Democrats  consider  them- 
selves the  direct  continuation  of  the  original  Republican  party, 
and  thus  in  a  sense  the  only  legitimate  party,  the  others  having 
branched  off  from  it  since  the  Revolution.  These  four  are  the 
definitely  constituted  Republican  parties,  besides  which  there 
are  the  more  advanced  Radical  Republicans,  the  Syndicalists 
(0  Sindicalista) ,  Socialists  (0  Socialista),  etc.  There  are  also 
the  Miguelists  (A  Napoo),  Manuelists  (0  Dia),  and  a  Royalist 
party  which  may  be  called  Sebastianist,  and  which  vaguely 
desires  the  return  of  former  conditions  without  having  any 
very  definite  political  creed.  It  must  be  remembered  that 
there  are  but  a  million  and  a  half  Portuguese  who  can  read 
and  write,  and  that  the  Republic  has  disfranchised  the 
remaining  4,500,000.  But  even  of  the  1,500,000  the  majority 
take  no  active  part  in  politics.  The  parties  are  in  fact  small 
personal  groups  collecting  round  any  politician  of  intelligence 
or  energy,  or  who  knows  the  political  ropes  and  the  art  of 
placing  or  promising  to  place  his  friends,  and  as  a  consequence 
they  are  too  much  inclined  to  give  prominence  to  small  per- 
sonal questions  and  storms  in  the  Lisbon  teacup.  The  fol- 
lowers of  the  various  parties  are  also  known  as  Affonsistas, 
Almeidistas,  Camachistas,  as  before  the  Revolution  there  were 
Franquistas,  Henriquistas,  Teixeiristas,  etc. 


170  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

These  groups  bicker  with  all  the  venom  of  personal  hatred 

amid  the  most  profound  indifference  of  the  country.     The 

formation  of  a  new  party  or  a  new  ministry 

M  ElectfoSnsand  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  country.  Even 
were  elections  in  Portugal  to  be  regarded  as 
a  sign  of  the  people's  will,  there  had  been  but  one  general 
election  since  the  Revolution  at  a  time  when  the  number  of 
governments  had  to  be  counted  on  the  fingers  of  both  hands, 
and  the  Ministers  of  Finance  on  fingers  and  toes.  So  a  new 
party  will  spring  up  in  Lisbon  and  have  little  root  in  the 
country  outside  Lisbon.  The  attitude  of  the  people  towards 
all  these  politicians  is  one  of  profound  distrust.  They  give 
them  credit  for  sufficient  intelligence  to  understand  their  own 
interests,  but  not  sufficient  to  understand  the  interests  of  the 
country.  A  peasant  in  one  of  Eca  de  Queiroz'  novels  is  of 
opinion  that  quern  manda  lucra,  and  this  melancholy  sentiment 
(that  he  who  has  charge  of  affairs  feathers  his  nest)  may  be 
heard  at  the  present  day.  It  is  not  said  in  anger,  but  as  the 
expression  of  a  very  natural  fact.  They  would  be  surprised 
if  it  were  otherwise.  While  the  unfortunate  Minister  of 
Finance  is  gazing  at  an  empty  exchequer,  they  imagine  him 
plunging  both  hands  in  a  rich  store  for  himself  and  his  friends. 
And  in  a  sense  they  are  right.  It  is  expected  of  ministers  in 
office  to  help  their  friends,  in  their  business  affairs,  and  to  find 
places  for  their  political  followers  somewhere  in  that  huge 
bureaucracy  which  has  been  the  bane  of  Portugal  since  the 
sixteenth  century.  And,  of  course,  each  new  government 
appoints  new  civil  governors  and  new  mayors  and  usually 
many  other  officials  in  the  provinces. 

When  it  is  remembered  that  Portugal  has  had  some  twenty 

governments  during  the  life  of  a  single  government  in  England, 

it  will  be  readily  understood  what  disastrous 

Ministries        confusion,  what   expense   and  waste,  result, 

not    to    speak    of    personal    ambitions   kept 

continually  at  fever  heat,  on  the  watch  and  intriguing  for  some 

official  post,  and  the  large  army  of  ex-officials  disinclined  or 


Politics  and  the  Press  171 

unable  to  find  other  employment.  The  list  of  Governments 
in  the  seven  years  1908-15  is — save  omissions — as  follows  : 
(1)  Joao  Franco,  (2)  Amaral,  (3)  Henriques,  (4)  Telles,  (5)  Lima, 
(6)  Beirao,  (7)  Teixeira  de  Sousa,  (8)  Provisional  Government, 
(9)  Joao  Chagas,  (10)  Vasconcellos,  (11),  Duarte  Leite,  (12) 
Costa,  (13)  Machado,  (14)  Azevedo,  (15)  Pimenta  de  Castro, 
(16)  Revolutionary  Government  (Joao  Chagas),  (17)  Jose 
de  Castro.  (18)  Jose  de  Castro  with  new  ministry.  The 
first  regular  Republican  Parliament  (1911-14)  saw  the  rise 
and  fall  of  seven  governments,  and  the  rise  and  fall  of  each 
of  them  made  as  little  commotion  in  the  country  (apart  from 
the  habitual  discussions  of  the  cafes  and  political  clubs  in  the 
towns)  as  a  pebble  thrown  into  the  Atlantic. 

How  can  this  be  so,  it  may  be  asked,  with  the  deputies  of 
the  nation  sitting  in  Parliament  ?  The  answer  is  that  elections 
in  Portugal  are  a  peculiar  practice.  The 
Phrase  "The  Government  makes  the  elec- 
tions "  obtains  in  Portugal  as  in  Spain,  and 
of  itself  speaks  volumes.  The  Government  is  first  appointed 
by  some  personal  intrigue  in  Lisbon,  with  or  without  reference, 
or  with  a  purely  formal  reference  to  the  strength  of  the  various 
parties  in  Parliament.  It  then  proceeds  to  remodel  the  poli- 
tical framework  throughout  the  country  by  appointing  civil 
governors,  mayors,  etc.,  of  its  own  political  views.  Then, 
when  it  is  well  seated  in  the  saddle,  it  holds  the  elections.  It 
is  an  unknown  thing  for  a  majority  to  be  returned  other  than 
of  the  supporters  of  the  Government.  This  would  be  dis- 
couraging to  the  electors  (and  also  it  would  be  impossible)  if 
they  took  any  interest  in  the  results,  but  the  results  are  always 
a  foregone  conclusion  except  in  matters  of  detail.  Senhor 
Affonso  Costa  after  he  had  as  Premier  obtained  thirty-four 
out  of  thirty-seven  seats  in  a  partial  election,  remarked  in  a 
speech  to  his  party,  the  Democrats  :  "  The  country  will 
give  us  more  next  time."  That  is,  the  Democrat  Government 
which  had  made  the  election  was  scarcely  content  to  have 
obtained  all  except  two  or  three  seats,  but  better  luck  next 


172  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

time  :  one  must  not  ask  too  much.  "  For  the  first  time,"  said 
Senhor  Bernardino  Machado  after  the  Revolution,  "  there 
is  going  to  be  in  this  country  an  election  without  the  inter- 
vention of  the  Government."  "  The  whole  country  must  be 
fully  convinced  that  it  is  not  the  Government  that  makes  the 
Constituent  Assembly  "  (from  a  speech  delivered  in  December, 
1910).  Of  course  the  thing  was  impossible,  the  country 
had  not  been  brought  up  to  use  its  own  discretion  at  an 
election.  At  a  meeting  of  the  Provisional  Government  and 
the  Directory  of  the  Republican  Party  held  in  the  very 
month  in  which  these  words  were  spoken  and  attended  by 
Senhor  Bernardino  Machado  who  had  spoken  them,  it  was 
resolved  to  "  bring  to  bear  all  the  forces  of  the  party  without 
exception  in  their  official  organisation  in  order  thus  to  prevent 
the  adversaries  of  the  Republic  from  introducing  themselves 
disguisedly  into  the  politics  of  the  nation  to  disturb  it." 
Openly,  of  course,  no  Royalist  would  dare  to  present  himself 
after  such  an  invitation  or  warning.  Yet  the  question  has 
sometimes  been  put  with  a  spider-and-fly  blandness  of  hypo- 
crisy :  "  Why  do  the  Royalists  not  present  themselves  for 
election  instead  of  conspiring  ?  "  although,  with  organised 
groups  employed  for  "  the  defence  of  the  Republic," 
the  Royalists  who  did  so  would  have  been  more  likely  to  see 
the  inside  of  the  Penitenciaria  than  of  the  House  of  Parliament. 
Sincere  Republicans  admit  that  the  first  Republican  Parlia- 
ment was  artificially  fabricated  in  Lisbon,  and  it  is  difficult 
to  see  how  it  could  be  otherwise  :  generations  must  pass  before 
a  really  representative  assembly  can  exist  in  Portugal.  Mean- 
while, fit,  non  nascitur.  A  candid  member  of  the  majority  in 
the  Chamber  of  Deputies  addressed  the  little  shrivelled 
minority  in  1911  with  the  words:  "Voces,  se  vieram  a 
Camara,  foi  porque  nos  quizemos  "  ("  You  are  only  here  on 
sufferance").  In  1907  Senhor  Joao  Chagas  was  exclaiming 
against  the  fictions,  lies,  fraud,  mockery  of  the  elections  : 
"  In  Portugal  the  Government  makes  the  elections.  .  .  . 
In  our  country  it  is  not  the  people  that  elects 


Politics  and  the  Press  173 

its   representatives :     it    is    the    Civil    Governors    and    the 
Mayors." 

His   words    are   still    applicable,    and   recent    years   have 
fastened  even  more  closely  upon  the  country  that  political 
centralisation  originally  derived  from  Napo- 
Centralisation.    Icon's    system,    and    which    gives    excellent 
results  only  so  long  as  an  administrative  genius 
is  at  the  head  of  affairs.     The  country  is  more  and  more  a 
motionless  and  paralysed  victim  in  the  strait-waistcoat  of 
an  administration  which  is  little  but  politics,  and  the  cost  of 
which  exceeds,  relatively,  even  that  of  France.     The  Revolu- 
tion brought   the   charge   of   even    greater  interference   of 
politics,  otherwise  the  political  system  has  remained  much  as 
before.     Leges  non  animam  mutant.     The  new  electoral  law 
has  been  described  even  by  Republicans   as  being  drawn  up 
on  the  lines  of  the  old. 

0  Seculo  in  a  leading  article  said  (5th  November,  1911)  : 
"  We  must  confess  that  the  transformation  of  the  old  methods 
has  not  attained  the  required  extent.     There 
Relativism.      seems  to  be  a  wish  to  continue  a  life  of  per- 
sonal  politics."     The   famous   rotativism   of 
the  Monarchy,  by  which  parties  succeeded  one  another  to 
power  without  any  reference  to  the  country,  and  with  but 
little  reference  to  its  nominal  representatives  in  Parliament, 
did  not  cease  with  the  Revolution.     "  Nefarious  rotativism  is 
still  with  us,"  said  0  Seculo  a  year  later. 

A    Republica,    a   year   later   again    (18th   October,    1912) 

remarked  in  a  leading  article :  "  The  truth  is  that,  in  two  years 

of  Republic,  political  cabals,  persecutions,  the 

Sincere         boldness  of  the  incompetent,  the  unscrupu- 
Repubhcans.  ,  .  \  , ,        .     , .     ... 

lousness   of   the   ambitious,   the  indiscipline 

of  nearly  everyone,  and  the  cowardice  of  the  greater  number, 
have  prevented  the  Republic  from  entering  frankly  upon  a 
system  of  careful  administration.  .  .  .  We  are  continuing 
the  system  of  mere  words  which  was  our  glory  in  opposition 
but  is  our  disgrace  in  power."  And  a  little  later  (24th  March, 


174  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

1913)  :  "  The  country  is  tired.  It  is  tired  especially  of  the 
enormous  lie  that  we  have  given  it,  as  it  looks  upon  a  Republic 
which  taxes  arbitrarily,  arrests  and  persecutes  arbitrarily, 
governs  and  administers  arbitrarily."  "  We  are  living  in 
anarchy  as  regards  administration,"  said  Dr.  Brito  Canacho 
in  A  Lucia  a  month  later.  And  Senhor  Machado  Santos, 
one  of  the  founders  of  the  Republic,  soon  found  that  the 
Republic  did  not  answer  to  his  dreams,  and  was  not  slow  to 
say  so  in  his  newspaper,  0  Intransigente :  "  The  Republic 
is  very  different  from  what  the  people  had  imagined,  and  as 
a  result  the  majority  has  relapsed  into  indifference,  while 
others,  passing  the  limits  of  all  reason,  beat  the  record  of 
petty  and  passionate  politics  "  (3rd  November,  191 1).  "  Poli- 
tics under  the  Monarchy  brought  the  Portuguese  nation  to 
ruin,  and  politics  under  the  Republic  instead  of  being  com- 
pletely different,  has  adopted  the  old  methods,"  and  "  in 
fourteen  months  has  done  more  harm  than  fourteen  years  of 
politics  during  the  Monarchy  "  (13th  December,  1911). 

The   peasants   had   remained   indifferent   from   the    first, 
where  they  were  not  secretly  hostile  to  the  Republic,  but  the 

workmen  of  the  towns,  or  more  accurately, 
Disillusion.      of  Lisbon,  were  bitterly  disappointed.     They 

noted  "  the  enormous  difference  "  between  the 
words  and  deeds  of  the  Republicans  and  that  "  everything 
is  now  sacrificed  to  the  creeping  politics  of  the  bourgeois,  who 
above  the  interests  of  the  country  set  the  ambitions  of  their 
politicians"  (A  Voz  do  Operario,  1st  December,  1912).  The 
Socialists  reserved  for  themselves  the  right  to  "  adopt  the 
revolutionary  methods  so  freely  advocated  formerly  by  the 
Republicans." 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  above  quotations  that  Republicans 
have  acknowledged  that  politics  before  the  Revolution  and 

politics  after  the  Revolution  were  as  much 
Remedies.       alike  as  the  names  of  Muppim  and  Huppim, 

those  sons  of  Benjamin.  Sincere  Republicans 
admit  it :  it  is  more  difficult  to  find  a  remedy.  When  education 


Politics  and  the  Press  175 

has    done   its    work  these    party  groups   may  possibly,  no 
doubt,  broaden  out  into  political  parties  with  real  root  in  the 
country,  but  it  will  be  a  process  of  centuries.     And  meanwhile, 
unfortunately,  the  Republicans,  dissatisfied  with  the  results 
of  the  Revolution,  have  recourse  to  a  different  remedy — more 
revolution — and  try  to  cure  themselves  with  a  hair  of  the  dog 
that  has  bitten  them.     Decentralisation,  of  course,  is  incom- 
patible with  the  government  by  personal  groups  at  Lisbon  in 
the  name  of  the  nation.     The  new  administrative  code,  if 
it  is  willing  to  take  power  from  the  mayors,  is  not  willing  to 
give  it  to  the  municipal  bodies.     Whatever  authority  is  taken 
from  the  mayors  is  given  not  to  locally  elected  corporations, 
but  to  other  officials,  mere  instruments  and  offshoots  of  the 
central  power.     And  indeed  Portugal  is  scarcely  ready  yet 
for  local  autonomy.     It  is  not  ready  for  the  parliamentary 
system,  and  the  scrupulous  care  with  which  it  and  all  con- 
stitutional forms  are  observed  sometimes  increases  instead  of 
diminishes  the  difficulty  of  a  situation.      The  hope  is  that  by 
maintaining  the  forms  strictly,  they  will  gradually  become  a 
living  system  instead  of  an  empty  framework,  but  that  hope  is 
indefinitely  deferred  owing  to  the  number  of  political  groups 
and  the  virulence  of  their  personal  animosities  and  ambitions. 
Two  great  parties,  instead  of  a  number  of  personal  groups, 
might  yet  succeed  in  extending  their  influence  in  the  country, 
were  they  to   adopt   simple,   practical  pro- 
PoHtics         grammes.     But  it  is  hopeless  to  expect  that 
a  programme,  however  simple,  will  be  carried 
out  so  long  as  there  are  three  or  four  Ministries  to  the  year. 
Six  or  seven  years  should  be  the  average  length  of  a  govern- 
ment, and  the  elections  should  be  held  at  the  end  of  that  time, 
not  at  the  beginning  of  its  career :   that  is,  the  Government 
should  ask  the  country  to  keep  it  in  office  if  satisfied  with 
what  it  has  achieved,  not  merely  inform  the  country  that  it 
has  achieved  its  object  of  establishing  itself  in  power.     It  was 
a  brave  and  excellent  precept  of  the  late  Spanish  Premier, 
Senor  Canalejas,  whose  assassination  was  so  heavy  a  loss  to 


176  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

Spanish  politics,  when  he  said  :  "I  mean  to  remain  in  office  a 
long  time  "  (Yo  me  propongo  seguir  mucho  tiempo  en  mi  puesto), 
and  the  most  praiseworthy  achievement  of  Dr.  Affonso  Costa 
as  Premier  was  that  he  did  in  the  face  of  attacks  from  all  sides 
and  every  criticism,  succeed  in  remaining  in  office  without  a 
single  change  of  Minister  (one  does  not  trouble  to  knock  down 
puppets)  for  a  whole  year.  Perhaps  some  more  conciliatory 
Premier,  who  is  not  a  mere  party  politician,  with  power  based 
precariously  in  demagogy,  may  yet  continue  in  office  for  five. 
It  would  make  politics  duller,  but  the  country  would  gain 
undoubtedly.  A  Liberal  and  a  Conservative  Government 
succeeding  one  another  at  long  intervals,  and  really  making 
some  effort  to  interest  the  people  and  base  their  authority  in 
the  will  of  the  people,  must  be  the  aim  of  Portuguese  politics 
for  the  present.  Then  in  a  century  or  two,  when  education 
has  become  general  and  communications  have  improved,  it 
will  be  discovered  that  Portugal  is  an  excellent  country  for 
government  by  referendum. 

But  for  the  present  the  Lisbon  politicians  continue  to 
pipe  to  the  country,  and  the  country  refuses  to  dance  to  their 
piping.   The  Provisional  Government,  formed 
immediately  after  the  Revolution  under  the 
Politicians.      presidency  of  Dr.  Theophilo  Braga, l  comprised 
Dr.  Antonio  Jose  de  Almeida2  as  Minister  of 
the  Interior,  Dr.  Bernardino  Machado3  as  Minister  for  Foreign 

1  Born  at  Ponta  Delgada  on  24th  February,   1843.     He  took  his 
degree  at  Coimbra  in  1868,  and  four  years  later  became  and  for  over 
forty  years  has  remained  Professor  of  Literature  at  Lisbon.     His  untir- 
ing studies  in  Portuguese  literature  have  brought  him  a  wide  celebrity. 

2  Born  at  Valle  da  Vinha  in  1866.     He  studied  medicine  at  Coimbra 
and  took  his  degree  in  1895.    He  wrote  an  article  entitled  "  The  Last 
Bragan?a,"  in  a  Coimbra  newspaper  in  1890,  and  was  imprisoned  for 
three  months.     After  his  release  he  took  part  in   the  unsuccessful 
Republican  rising  of  1891.     He  subsequently  worked  as  a  doctor  in 
Sao  Thome  for  nearly  ten  years. 

3  Born  at  Rio  de  Janeiro  in  1851,  the  son  of  the  first  Baron  Joanne. 
He  studied  at  Oporto,  and  was  appointed  Professor  of  Philosophy  in 
1879.     In  1882  he  was  elected  deputy  for  Lamego,  and  in  1893  became 
Minister  of  Public  Works  under  Snr.   Hintze  Ribeiro.     Minister  for 


Politics  and  the  Press  177 

Affairs,  Dr.  Brito  Camacho l  as  Minister  of  Public  Works,  and 
Dr.  Affonso  Costa2  as  Minister  of  Justice.  So  far  only  one 
party  existed,  called  the  Partido  Republicano,  but  after 
the  Provisional  Government  had  come  to  an  end  Dr.  Almeida 
dissociated  himself  from  it  to  form  what  he  called  the  Evolu- 
tionist Republican  party,  while  a  third  party,  the  Unionist 
(Unido  National  Republicana) ,  was  constituted  under  the 
leadership  of  Dr.  Brito  Camacho.  Both  these  parties  were 
slightly  more  Conservative  in  character,  and  in  the  Evolution- 
ists especially  this  tendency  was  subsequently  accentuated. 
Yet  the  Partido  Republicano,  under  the  leadership  of  Dr. 
Costa,  continued  to  regard  itself  as  the  only  Republican  party. 
In  a  sense  this  was  true,  since  the  Republicans,  in  the  words 
of  Senhor  Guerra  Junqueiro,  at  the  end  of  last  century,  are 
a  party  of  "  demolition  rather  than  reconstruction."  Dr.  Costa 
and  his  party  have  been  excellent  demolishers.  Senhor 
Machado  Santos, 3  who  had  led  the  Republican  troops  in 
October,  1910,  in  Lisbon,  and  is  sometimes  called  the  Founder 
of  the  Republic,  constituted  himself  the  candid  critic  of 
Republican  political  tendencies,  and  gathered  round  him  a 
small  group  of  Independents.  But  none  of  these  dissenting 
leaders  have  had  the  strength  to  form  a  Ministry  of  their  own, 
and  the  Conservative  side  of  Republican  politics  has  existed 
rather  in  theory  than  in  action. 

Foreign  Affairs  in  1910,  he  was  then  appointed  Portuguese  Minister  at 
Rio  de  Janeiro,  and  returned  to  become  Portuguese  Premier  in 
February,  1914.  In  1915  he  was  elected  President  of  the  Republic  by 
the  Democrats. 

1  Born  at  Aljustrel.     He  studied  medicine  at  Lisbon,  and  became 
an  army  doctor.     He  succeeded  the  first  Minister  of  Fomento,    Snr. 
Antonio  Luiz  Gomes,  on  23rd  November,  1910. 

2  Born  at  Ceia  in  the  Serra  da  Estrella  in  1871.     He  took  his  degree 
at  Coimbra  in  1895,  and  practised  as  an  advocate  with  success.     In 
1900  he  was  returned  as  Republican  deputy  for  Oporto,  and  took  a 
prominent  part  in  opposing  successive  governments  till  the  fall  of  the 
Monarchy.     From  January,  1913,  to  January,  1914,  he  was  Premier. 

3  Born  at  Lisbon  in  1875.     He  was  a  lieutenant  in  the  Navy  at  the 
time  of  the  Revolution,   in  preparing  which  (and  in  organising  the 
Carbonanos)  he  had  taken  a  principal  part.    After  the  Revolution  he  was 
raised  to  the  rank  of  captain  and  granted  a  pension  of  3  contos  (£600). 

12 (2404) 


178  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

Of  the  Republican  politicians,  the  most  forcible,  persistent, 
and  unscrupulous,  has  been  Dr.  Affonso  Costa.  Dr.  Brito 
Camacho  has  beside  him  the  air  of  a  retired 
thinker  a1101  student,  while  Dr.  Antonio  Jose 
d' Almeida  has  the  reputation  of  being  more 
of  an  idealist  than  a  practical  politician.  Dr.  Costa  was 
described  once  in  Le  Temps  as  being  likely  to  play  "  un  role 
en  evidence  dans  les  manifestations  de  la  rue."  He  is  a 
clever  lawyer,  quick  to  see  his  advantage  and  follow  it  up, 
but  lacking  far-sightedness  and  breadth  of  view.  He  has  the 
strength  of  his  narrowness,  and  may  be  called  an  inverted 
Joao  Franco.  But  he  is  essentially  a  party  politician,  not 
a  statesman.  In  all  opposition,  in  every  contretemps,  he  sees 
the  hand  of  clericalism  and  the  Jesuits,  using  anti-clericalism 
as  a  cement  to  keep  his  party  together.  His  power  has  been 
built  up  and  based  on  the  art  of  the  demagogue,  and  by 
controlling  the  mob  and  organised  groups  of  Carbonarios  he 
was  able  to  control  the  destinies  of  the  Republic  during  times 
of  disorder,  and  to  upset  any  government  with  which  he 
disagreed.  But  if  his  hold  on  the  mob  has  made  him  arbiter 
of  the  Republic  he  has  also  suffered  at  the  hands  of  his 
supporters,  and  might  well  pray  to  be  delivered  from  his 
friends. 

The  strange  paeans  of  praise  in  0  Mundo,  poems  to  his 

vidto  imortal,  the  resolve  of  an  admirer  to  order  a  life-like 

silver  statue  of  him,   the  arrest  of  persons 

J1]?  p.uff        for  speaking  ill  of  him,  the  arrest  of  others 
Politician. 

accused   of   wishing   to   assassinate   him,    as 

well  as  his  own  extraordinary  speeches  in  Parliament  and  out 
of  Parliament,  showing  an  ignorance  of  the  conditions  of  life 
in  Portugal  almost  as  profound  as  his  ignorance  of  the  con- 
ditions in  foreign  countries,  might  well  have  crushed  him 
beneath  a  load  of  ridicule,  but  have  merely  served  to  keep  him 
in  the  public  eye.  As  to  the  attempts  at  assassinating  him, 
these  puffs  of  his  political  admirers  are  now  quite  discredited. 
One  of  the  supposed  murderers  arrested  at  Santarem  was 


TOWER    OF    CASTLE,    BEJA 


[See  p.  104 


Politics  and  the  Press  179 

found  to  be  armed  with  nothing  more  deadly  than  a  small 
pocket-knife,  others  arrested  at  the  Praia  das  Macas,  in  the 
summer  of  1913,  were  released  as  innocent  after  a  year  and 
a  half's  imprisonment ;  another,  this  time  a  schoolboy,  had 
a  pistol  put  into  his  hand  by  Dr.  Costa's  puffers,  but  fired  so 
badly  that  he  did  not  even  succeed  in  hitting  the  railway 
carriage  in  which  Dr.  Costa  was  going  to  travel.  His  oppo- 
nents must  be  fools  indeed  if  they  do  not  realise  how  greatly 
his  party  would  gain  were  a  real  attempt  made  to  assassinate 
him.  He  would  be  at  once  converted  from  a  pleasant  nonen- 
tity to  a  martyr,  a  kind  of  Portuguese  Ferrer.  Certainly 
Dr.  Affonso  Costa  has  been  the  politician  most  in  evidence 
since  the  Revolution.  It  is  rumoured  that  he  keeps  a  large 
number  of  dogs  and  cuts  off  the  tail  of  one  of  them  Alcibiades- 
fashion  as  occasion  offers,  but  this  is  almost  certainly  a  calum- 
nious invention,  cruelty  to  animals  being  quite  foreign  to  his 
nature.  But  it  was  almost  pathetic  to  see  how,  at  the  advent 
of  a  statesman,  he  withered  away  politically  as  if  he  had  met 
the  Snark,  and  turned  to  conspiracy  and  revolution  in  order  to 
overthrow  him.  For  General  Pimenta  de  Castro, 1  though  not 
a  party  politician,  showed  truer  statesmanship  than  all  the 
party-leaders. 

A  return  of  the  Democrats  to  power  must  be  disastrous  for 
many  reasons,  and  the  way  the  country  would  be  thrown  into 

fresh  unrest  and  the  prisons  filled  may  be 
Democrats       SauSec^  ^rom   tne  ^act   that   the   Democrats 

are  wonderfully  vindictive,  and  are  already 
marking  out  names  of  persons  for  arrest  and  of  buildings 
(of  Royalist  newspapers,  Conservative  clubs,  etc.)  for  attack. 
Vindictiveness  in  Portugal,  especially  in  political  questions, 

1  Joaquim  Pereira  Pimenta  de  Castro,  born  at  Pias,  near  Vianna 
do  Castello,  in  the  province  of  Minho,  in  1846.  He  entered  the  Army 
(Engineers)  in  October,  1867,  and  became  captain  in  1874,  major  in 
1883,  lieut. -colonel  in  1887,  colonel  in  1892,  general  in  1900.  He  has 
published  various  works,  all  of  a  practical  character,  including  "  A 
Rational  and  Practical  Solution  of  the  Electoral  Problem,"  written  in 
1890,  and  translated  into  French  and  English  in  1904. 


180  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

is  carried  to  extraordinary  lengths,  and  the  man  marked  down 
for  political  persecution  has  to  be  continually  on  his  guard. 
Perhaps  years  are  allowed  to  pass,  and  the  victim  is  given  no 
inkling  of  hostility;  perhaps  he  had  left  the  country  and 
returns  to  live  peacefully  and  obscurely  ;  then  when  he  least 
expects  it  he  will  find  himself  in  gaol  or  stabbed  or  shot. 
A  foreigner  will  give  far  less  offence  if  he  adopts  a  detached, 
amused,  supercilious  attitude  than  if  he  studies  Portuguese 
politics  sincerely  from  a  Portuguese  point  of  view,  and  con- 
siders what  is  the  best  remedy  for  the  country.  But  all  who 
prefer  to  breathe  the  sweet  air  of  Heaven  rather  than  that  of 
the  prisons  of  Portugal,  would  do  well  to  club  together,  and 
keep  the  "  Democrats  "  out  of  office  until  they  have  moderated 
their  inquisitorial  ardour. 

As  to  the  Carbonarios,  it  is  hoped  that  if  the  Royalists 
refrain  from  any  violent  demonstrations  these  devoted  defend- 
ers of  the  Republic  in  and  out  of  season  will 
Carbonaria  gradually  disappear.  The  society  was  foun- 
ded as  early  as  1823  in  imitation,  or  rather  in 
desecration,  of  the  Italians  who  conspired  against  the  yoke  of 
Austria,  and  was  reorganised  in  1848.  It  was,  however, 
chiefly  after  the  abortive  Republican  rising  of  the  31st  of 
January,  1891,  that  the  Carbonarios  gained  in  strength  and, 
organised  in  small  separate  groups,  in  chofas,  barracas,  and 
vendas,  became  the  most  powerful  political  force  in 
the  country.  Their  numbers  in  October,  1910,  have 
been  variously  estimated  at  40,000,  32,000,  or  a  much 
lower  figure.  It  is  impossible  to  say,  but  it  is  certain 
that  since  the  Revolution,  while  the  old  Carbonarios  were  not 
disbanded,  new  sets  sprang  up,  organised  by  the  Republican 
parties  "  for  the  defence  of  the  Republic."  The  Democrats 
especially  advanced  hand  in  hand  with  the  Carbonarios, 
forming  an  army  of  Carbonario  spies  in  their  service,  till  in 
1913  they  came  into  office  together.  These  new  bodies  of 
"  insolent  neo-Carbonarios,"  as  a  Republican  newspaper 
described  them,  spread  distrust  and  unrest  through  the 


Politics  and  the  Press  181 

country,  spying,  insulting,  arresting.  "  They  allow  us  not 
a  moment  of  tranquillity "  (A  Republica,  12th  December, 
1912).  "  There  is  no  corner  of  the  country  now  without  a  nest 
of  Carbonados,"  wrote  Senhor  Machado  Santos  a  year  after 
the  Revolution  in  0  Intransigente,  3rd  November,  1911.  And 
these  nests  were  not  composed,  principally,  of  the  old  Car- 
bonarios.  Thus,  it  was  possible  for  Dr.  Affonso  Costa,  when 
Premier,  to  say  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  that  he  considered 
the  Carbonarios  should  have  been  disbanded  after  the 
Revolution,  referring  to  the  old  Carbonarios. 

The  words  naturally  did  not  apply  to  the  post-revolution 
brands,  such  as  that  of  the  "  White  Ants,"  which  at  the  very 
time  that  Dr.  Costa  spoke  thus  were  being 
Antics  actively  organised  by  his  Government.  Ac- 
cording to  the  statements  made  in  Parliament 
by  Senhor  Alberto  Silveira,  who  during  three  years  after  the 
Revolution  of  1910  was  head  of  the  Lisbon  police,  these 
White  Ants  (often  suitably  dressed  in  antique  black,  with 
flowing  black  ties),  organised  during  Dr.  Costa' s  Premiership, 
included  "  some  who  gave  their  services  with  a  view  to  future 
employment,  others  who  contented  themselves  with  payment 
in  money."  Some  "  belonged  to  Carbonario  associations 
created  since  the  Revolution  by  individuals  of  low  social  and 
moral  status."  "  Others  came  from  revolutionary  clubs, 
such  as  the  '  Radical  Club  '  ;  some  were  anarchists  openly 
hostile  to  the  existing  regime."  Some  used  cards  with 
G.  Civil  printed  on  them,  standing  for  Grupo  Civil,  but  intended 
to  convey  to  their  victims  the  official  authority  of  the  Governo 
Civil.  Groups  (nucleos  de  vigilancia)  had  been  formed  for  the 
defence  of  the  Republic,  said  Dr.  Costa  on  another  occasion, 
at  the  meeting  of  the  Republican  (Democrat)  Party 
at  Aveiro  in  April,  1913,  and  had  been  such  a  success  that 
they  would  be  continued.  But  officially,  of  course,  the 
Carbonaria  does  not  exist,  the  Government  knows  nothing 
about  it,  and  if  you  ask  a  Carbonario  he  will  answer  that  there 
is  no  such  thing  in  Portugal. 


182  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

There  should  be  no  such  society  in  Portugal.     It  is  not 

needed  and  only  serves  to  spread  a  feeling  of  distrust  and 

discomfort  in  daily  life,  which  can  only  be 

Delenda  est      paralleled  by  the  state  of  suspicion  and  dis- 
Carbonana.  ,  ,,  ^ 

quiet  under  some  of  the  Roman  Emperors  or 

in  the  heyday  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition.  Or  if  it  is  needed 
to  prop  up  the  Republic,  the  Republic  by  that  very  fact  stands 
condemned.  But  the  Carbonados  should  understand  that 
their  services  are  no  longer  required,  and  take  a  well-earned 
rest.  If  they  do  not  and,  encouraged  by  a  certain  section  of 
the  Republican  Press,  commit  fresh  outrages,  they  will  signally 
help  the  Royalist  cause  and  hasten  the  Restoration.  Almost 
the  worst  feature  of  the  last  few  years  has  been  the  encourage- 
ment given  by  the  Democrat  Press  to  attack  the  life  and 
property  of  priests,  Roman  Catholics,  and  Royalists.  Such 
a  journalist  as  the  editor  of  0  Mundo  was  indirectly  respon- 
sible for  the  death  of  Lieutenant  Soares  and  other  murders 
and  should  have  been  punished  accordingly.  The  liberty  of 
the  Press  cannot  be  held  to  include  toleration  of  direct  incite- 
ments to  kill  political  opponents.  The  Mundo  is  all  the  more 
dangerous  in  that  it  is  not  read  by  the  educated,  but  by 
ignorant  persons,  who  have  no  means  of  knowing  how  false 
and  insidious  are  many  of  its  contents. 


CHAPTER  XI 

FROM   MONARCHY  TO   REPUBLIC 

AT  the  opening  of  the  twentieth  century,  Dom  Carlos  was 

in  the  twelfth  year  of  his  reign,  and  Senhor  Hintze  Ribeiro 

(d.  1st  August,  1907)  was  his  Prime  Minister. 

Last  Years  of    j^g  Parliamentary  system  copied  from  Eng- 
Dom  Carlos'      ,       ,  .  *      ...      ,,        j.-,  ,, 

Reign.          land  was  in  use,   with  the  difference  that 

whereas  in  England  the  political  views  of  the 
Government  depend  on  the  result  of  the  elections,  in  Portugal 
the  result  of  the  elections  depended  on  the  political  views  of 
the  Government  which  "  made  "  them,  after  the  Government 
itself  had  been  made  for  personal  or  party  reasons  at  Lisbon. 
The  two  principal  parties,  were  the  Regenerator  or  Conserva- 
tive, under  the  leadership  of  Senhor  Hintze  Ribeiro,  and  the 
Progressista  or  Liberal,  under  the  leadership  of  Senhor  Jose 
Luciano  de  Castro  (d.  9th  March,  1914).  These  continued  to 
alternate  in  power  by  a  system  of  connivance  and  compromise 
known  as  Rotativism.  The  Regenerador  Ministry  of  Senhor 
Hintze  Ribeiro  lasted  from  25th  June,  1900,  till  1904.  In  an 
earlier  Regenerador  Ministry  under  Senhor  Hintze  Ribeiro  the 
Minister  of  the  Interior  had  been  Senhor  Joao  Franco,  who 
in  1901  separated  himself  from  the  Regenerador  party.  In  1903 
he  formed  a  new  party  entitled  Regenerador  Liberal.  With 
the  resignation  of  Senhor  Hintze  Ribeiro  in  1904,  Senhor  Jose 
Luciano  de  Castro  came  into  office,  and  held  the  elections  in 
the  following  year.  In  March,  1906,  Senhor  Hintze  Ribeiro 
was  again  Premier,  but  only  for  a  few  weeks,  during  which  he 
held  another  general  election.  The  election  as  a  Republican 
deputy  of  Senhor  Bernardino  Machado  gave  the  populace  of 
Lisbon  an  opportunity  to  show  its  Republican  leanings,  and 
the  severe  repression  of  the  demonstration  made  on  his  arrival 
at  Lisbon  led  indirectly  to  the  fall  of  the  Government.  Both 
the  great  parties  had  now  met  with  such  resistance  in 

183 


184  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

Parliament  or  in  public  opinion  that  they  found  it  impossible 
to  govern. 

On  the  18th  of  May,  King  Carlos,  breaking  through  the 
Rotativism  which  has  been  so  frequently  attacked,  turned  to 
the  Regenerador  Liberal  party,  and  its  leader, 
Joao  Senhor  Joao  Franco,  became  Premier.  The 

King  considered  that  he  had  found  the  "  man 
of  character  "  to  put  the  political  house  in  order,  and  he 
openly  said  so,  thereby  giving  great  offence  to  all  the  other 
politicians  who  amazingly  fitted  on  the  cap,  and  said :  "  He 
accuses  us  of  political  corruption."  Senhor  Franco  had  come 
into  office  with  the  support  of  the  Progressistas,  under  Senhor 
Jose  Luciano  de  Castro,  without  which,  indeed,  it  would  have 
been  impossible  for  him  to  control  the  Parliamentary  situation. 
In  the  new  Parliament,  elected  in  August,  four  Republicans 
were  elected,  including  Dr.  Antonio  Jose"  de  Almeida  and 
Dr.  Affonso  Costa ;  Senhor  Hintze  Ribeiro's  party  (the 
Regenerador)  was  represented  by  thirty  deputies,  Senhor 
Castro's  by  over  forty,  while  the  Government  secured  for  itself 
only  seventy.  So  long  as  the  new  Premier  could  count  on 
the  votes  of  the  forty-three  Progressista  deputies,  he  was  able 
to  face  the  noisy  scenes  of  the  Chamber,  but  when  that 
support  was  withdrawn  a  few  months  later  it  only  remained 
for  him  to  resign  or  to  dissolve  Parliament.  Since  the  leaders 
of  the  Regeneradores  and  of  the  Progressistas  had  both  within 
the  last  few  months  come  to  a  similar  dilemma,  and  there  was 
no  likelihood  of  finding  a  statesman  of  stronger  character  and 
greater  ability  than  Senhor  Franco,  the  King  accepted  the  latter 
alternative  and  on  10th  May,  1907,  Parliament  was  dissolved. 

Henceforth  Senhor  Franco  stood  alone,  the  best-hated  and 

most  calumniated  man  in  Lisbon.     It  was  in  Lisbon  that  the 

Republicans    had    principally    spread    their 

Republicans.      doctrines>  bY  SossiP>  pamphlets,  and  news- 
papers among  the  half-educated  classes,  who 
received  with  scandalised  anger  whatever  accounts  of  Royal 
extravagance   and  of  the  wickedness  of  the  Jesuits  were 


From  Monarchy  to  Republic  185 

furnished  to  them.  If  Senhor  Franco  was  hated  in  Lisbon, 
the  King  was  not  much  more  popular.  He  himself  had  summed 
up  the  situation  as  "  a  Monarchy  without  Monarchists,"  and 
the  last  Premier  of  the  Monarchy,  Senhor  Teixeira  de  Sousa, 
declared  that  the  Monarchy  fell  because  it  had  against  it  the 
passion  of  many  and  the  indifference  of  the  majority.  "  There 
are  no  Royalists  in  Portugal,"  said  Senhor  Joao  Chagas,  a 
good  instance  of  the  bad  habit  of  calling  Lisbon  Portugal. 
The  passions  were  concentrated  in  Lisbon,  and  the  indifference 
in  the  provinces  only  served  to  throw  the  lurid  politics  of  the 
capital  into  stronger  relief. 

The  adeantamentos,  that  is,  sums  advanced  by  the  Treasury 

for  the  King's  expenses,  were  a  favourite  catchword  of  the 

Republicans,     and    a    frequent    motive    of 

calumny.     But  when  Senhor  Franco  proposed 

to  increase  the  Civil  List,  which  had  remained 

stationary  for  the  last  three-quarters  of  a  century  at  a  conto 

(about  £200)  a  day,  and  do  away  with  the  adeantamentos,  the 

storm  of  opposition  and  abuse  only  increased. 

Here  was  a  firm  and  able  statesman,  anxious  to  carry 
through  financial,  political  and  social  reforms,  and  it  might 
have  been  expected  that  he  would  have 
OStosltion  received  some  support  from  those  who  had 
the  interests  of  the  country  at  heart.  Perhaps 
the  Republicans  considered  the  reforms  too  late,  or  rather  a 
little  too  early,  since  for  them  the  first,  the  chief,  reform  was 
now  a  change  of  regime :  reforms  did  not  please  them  unless 
they  could  be  carried  out  by  themselves.  But  it  was  not  the 
Republicans  alone  who  were  to  blame  for  the  loss  of  this  great 
opportunity  of  restoring  order  and  stable  government  in 
Portugal.  If  the  Republicans  shrieked,  the  Royalist  parties 
were  no  less  clamorous  against  Senhor  Franco.  All  those 
whose  interests  were  menaced  by  the  proposed  reforms,  all 
the  comfortable  rotativists  and  political  hypocrites,  all  those 
who  wished  to  gain  credit  by  themselves  initiating  the  reforms, 
and  hated  them  when  coming  from  another,  were  united 


186  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

against  Senhor  Franco.  Senhor  Franco,  however,  did  not 
lose  his  head  but  continued  his  work  with  calmness  and 
courage.  He  succeeded  in  decreasing  the  deficit  and  giving 
some  hope  of  gradually  abolishing  it  altogether.  But  as  the 
opposition  increased  he  was  obliged  to  increase  the  rigour  of 
his  dictatorship.  Various  newspapers  were  suspended  and 
the  censorship  became  very  strict.  The  fact  that  the  sus- 
pended newspapers  included  0  Dia,  then  the  organ  of  the 
Alpoimistas  (that  is,  the  Progressistas  Dissidentes,  under  the 
leadership  of  Snr.  Jose  Alpoim),  0  Mundo,  a  Republican  news- 
paper then  in  its  eighth  year,  the  Progressist  a  Correio  da  Noite 
and  the  Regenerador  Populo  suffices  to  show  the  force  of  the 
opposition  with  which  the  hated  "  Dictator  "  had  to  contend, 
and  also  how  impartial  he  was  in  his  efforts  to  effect  reforms 
which  most  disinterested  persons  acknowledged  to  be  excellent 
and  necessary.  He  had  not  begun  by  employing  arbitrary 
methods.  "  The  Republican  party,"  wrote  a  Portuguese 
journalist,  "  asked  above  all  for  liberty,  and  the  first  thing 
the  Government  of  Joao  Franco  did  was  to  give  it  liberty. 
He  gave  it  liberty  of  the  Press  and  of  association  ;  he  allowed 
it  to  demonstrate  noisily  in  streets  and  squares.  What  was 
the  result  ?  The  Republicans  declared  in  the  newspapers 
that  they  did  not  want  the  liberty  given  them  by  the  Govern- 
ment, and  one  newspaper  even  wrote  :  '  The  more  liberty 
they  give  us  the  more  we  will  require  ;  we  must  force  them 
to  compromising  violence  or  disgraceful  compromise.'  ' 

Never  have  party  passions  so  blinded  all  the  politicians  of 

a  country  to  that  country's  interests  as  in  the  violent  and, 

one  may  well  add,  cowardly  attacks  on  Senhor 

Party          Franco.     There  was  even  a  plot  to  kidnap 
Passions.  . 

him,  and  place  him  on  a  man-of-war  in  the 

Tagus.  It  is  scarcely  surprising  that  Senhor  Franco  should 
have  been  obliged  to  resort  to  methods  more  arbitrary, 
which  of  course  drew  scandalised  cries  of  rage  from  those  who 
had  made  them  necessary.  In  Lisbon  the  lowest  interpreta- 
tion was  placed  on  all  his  actions.  Senhor  Franco  had  no 


From  Monarchy  to  Republic  187 

delight  in  violence,  but  he  considered  that  it  was  the  duty  of 
a  Government  to  govern,  and  that  if  this  was  rendered  impos- 
sible for  it  by  constitutional  means  it  must  govern  as  best  it 
might.  The  dictatorship  was  only  temporary,  in  fact  the 
elections  were  fixed  for  April  of  the  following  year  (1908). 
But  with  the  extraordinary  respect  for  convention  and  nice 
superficial  scruples  about  formalities  that  characterises 
Portuguese  politics  (which  sometimes  seems  to  be  a  game 
to  see  who  has  the  skill  to  govern  most  constitutionally  and 
worst),  a  certain  number  of  Royalists  preferred  to  go  over  to 
the  Republic  than  to  acquiesce  in  anything  so  unconstitutional 
(and  opposed  to  their  interests)  as  the  dictatorship. 

Could  Senhor  Franco  have  counted  on  the  support  of  public 
opinion  outside  Lisbon  he  might  have  mastered  the  situation, 

but  the  mass  of  the  people  continued  as  usual 

Arr"t          remote  and  apathetic,  and  it  only  remained 

Conspirators.     f°r  him  to  order  the  arrest  of  those  whose 

avowed  object  was  to  make  government 
impossible.  Never  under  the  Monarchy  was  a  Republican 
arrested  because  he  was  a  Republican.  Republicans  were 
allowed  to  retain  high  office  in  the  army  and  in  the  civil 
service.  But  the  men  now  arrested  were  known  to  have 
entered  into  a  definite  conspiracy  to  overthrow  the  Govern- 
ment and  to  seize  the  person  of  the  Premier,  if  not  to  kill  him. 
In  January,  not  for  the  first  time,  a  turbulent  Republican 
journalist,  Snr.  Joao  Chagas,  was  arrested,  as  also  a  more 
dangerous  because  more  underhand  Republican,  Snr.  Franga 
Borges,  of  the  Mundo.  The  arrest  of  the  Republican  deputy, 
Snr.  Affonso  Costa  and  of  the  Visconde  de  Ribeira  Brava, 
followed  a  week  later  (28th  January,  1908).  Dr.  Antonio 
Jose  de  Almeida  had  been  arrested  a  few  days  before.  These 
were  the  darlings  of  a  certain  and  not  the  most  orderly  section 
of  the  Lisbon  people,  and  on  their  arrest  disturbances  occurred 
which  were  suppressed  by  the  Civil  Guard.  And  here  it  may 
be  remarked  that  while  Snr.  Franco  held  the  perfectly  legiti- 
mate view  that  order  must  be  maintained  at  all  costs,  he  could 


188  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

scarcely  be  held  responsible  for  the  way  in  which  his  orders 
were  carried  out  in  detail.  The  methods  of  the  Lisbon  police 
and  soldiers  of  the  Guard  are  strange  and  ill  calculated  to 
lessen  the  anger  of  a  crowd.  Even  under  the  Republic  mounted 
soldiers  of  the  Guard  have  been  known  to  slash  with  their 
naked  swords  at  innocent  persons  standing  on  the  pavement 
who  did  not  amount  in  all  to  a  dozen,  and  were  not  dreaming 
of  revolt  or  rebellion,  being  armed  only  with  the  not  very 
warlike  weapons  known  as  umbrellas.  The  suppression  of 
riots  in  January,  1908,  was  no  doubt  characterised  by  the 
same  methods.  A  decree  of  January  31st  (anniversary  of 
the  rising  at  Oporto  in  1891,  from  which  the  Republican 
movement  really  dates)  came  to  set  a  fine  edge  on  the  indigna- 
tion of  the  Lisbon  Republicans,  who  had  been  schooled  to 
believe  the  worst  of  Snr.  Franco  and  the  King.  By  a  decree 
of  the  preceding  November  political  crimes  were  to  come 
before  three  judges,  the  Juge  d' Instruction  Criminelle  and  two 
coadjutors,  their  verdict  to  be  without  appeal.  The  new 
decree  allowed  the  Government  to  interfere  and  banish  the 
accused.  (Not  for  a  moment  was  there  any  idea  of 
imprisoning  these  confessed  conspirators  in  the  Penitenciaria.) 
Like  lightning  the  news  spread  through  Lisbon,  exaggerated 
into  the  announcement  that  all  the  Republican  leaders  were 
to  be  deported  to  Africa.  King  Carlos  was, 
Murder  of  with  the  Queen  and  the  Crown  Prince,  at 

and  <rf  "the  Villa  Vicosa»  to  the  south  of  the  Tagus,  but 
Crown  Prince,  was  returning  to  Lisbon  on  the  following  day. 
The  report  was  diligently  circulated  that  he 
was  coming  in  order  to  sign  a  decree  deporting  Snr.  Affonso 
Costa  and  the  other  leaders.  The  King  was  met  at  the  quay 
of  the  Terreiro  do  Paco,  or  "  Black  Horse  Square,"  by  Prince 
Manoel,  and  the  Premier,  Snr.  Franco,  and  entered  an  open 
carriage  with  Queen  Ame"lie,  the  Crown  Prince,  and  Prince 
Manoel.  The  carriage  was  about  to  leave  the  spacious 
Terreiro  do  Paco  when  several  men  sprang  towards  it,  and  in 
an  instant  Dom  Carlos  and  the  Crown  Prince  fell  back  mortally 


From  Monarchy  to  Republic  189 

wounded  by  several  bullets.  The  Queen  was  seen  standing 
up  in  the  carriage  waving  her  bouquet  of  flowers  in  order  to 
deflect  the  aim  of  the  assassins.  The  Infante  Manoel  was 
slightly  wounded  in  the  arm.  The  first  words  spoken  by 
Queen  Amelie  and  Queen  Maria  Pia,  mother  of  Dom  Carlos, 
when  they  met,  have  been  thus  recorded :  "  They  have 
killed  my  son  "•  •"  And  mine."  The  murder  was  followed 
in  Lisbon  by  no  wave  of  generous  feeling,  and  if  sadness  was 
felt  by  many  it  was  in  the  words  of  Camoes,  an  apagada  e  vil 
tristeza. 

Was  this  peculiarly  hideous  and  dastardly  crime  the  work 
of  the  Republicans  ?  They  denied  it  at  first  for  the  sake  of 
foreign  opinion,  but  subsequently  they  have 
accePted  it  as  one  of  the  glorious  deeds  of 
Portuguese  history.  Thousands  of  Republic- 
ans defiled  past  the  graves  of  the  murderers,  Bui?a  and  Costa, 
who  had  been  cut  down  by  the  police,  and  the  procession 
to  their  graves  has  been  continued  on  each  anniversary  of  this 
cowardly  deed.  The  Democrats  have  now  erected  a  costly 
mausoleum  in  honour  of  its  authors.  On  the  first  anniversary 
of  the  Republic  their  names  appeared  written  up  in  one  of  the 
principal  streets  of  Lisbon  among  the  heroes  of  the  nation. 
Even  while  King  Manoel  was  still  on  the  throne  Snr.  Joao 
Chagas  addressed  one  of  his  Cartas  politicas  to  the  shade  of 
Manoel  Bui£a  :  "  You  did  something  great,"  he  says,  "  very 
great.  You  rehabilitated,  you  dignified  the  people."  Yet 
a  people  so  "  rehabilitated  "  could  only  be  a  despicable  rabble. 
It  will  be  seen  that  the  Republicans,  or  at  least  the  Democrats, 
have  accepted  and  glory  in  this  crime  as  their  own.  If  at  the 
time  they  repudiated  it  for  the  sake  of  appearances  (since  it 
was  evident  that  a  Republic  ostensibly  based  on  a  deed  of  the 
kind  could  have  little  chance  of  winning  the  sympathy  of 
foreign  nations),  in  fact  the  Republican  leaders  and  the 
Lisbon  shopkeepers  who  supported  them  gave  it  their  hearty 
approval,  with  that  strange  callousness  which  appears  more 
repulsive  when  combined  with  sentimentalism  and  vague 


190  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

humanity.  The  more  enlightened  Republicans  knew,  of 
course,  that  the  King  was  not  responsible  for  the  dishonesty 
or  incapacity  prevailing  in  Portuguese  politics,  and  that  his 
interference  in  politics  was  strictly  denned  and  limited  by  the 
Constitution.  There  was  no  reason  why  honest  and  able  men 
should  not  rise  to  a  prominent  place  in  politics,  and  if  the 
Republicans  held  a  monopoly  of  such  men  they  would  have 
been  well  advised  to  reform  the  Monarchy  from  within,  by 
pocketing  their  Republicanism  and  rising  to  high  office  under 
the  Monarchy.  The  very  fact  that  the  King  chose  and  stuck 
to  Snr.  Franco  in  the  face  of  all  opposition  shows  that  he  was 
far  from  being  anxious  to  encourage  corruption  and 
incompetence. 

No  sensible  critic  has  accused  Snr.  Franco  of  either  incom- 
petence or  corruption.  But  the  King's  death  naturally 
caused  the  fall  of  Snr.  Franco,  and  the 
Monarchy  was  left  to  attempt  to  carry  out 
reforms,  but  without  the  only  politician  dis- 
interested enough  or  of  firm  enough  character  to  make  the 
attempt  successful.  The  situation  in  the  new  reign,  especially 
during  its  last  Ministry,  with  its  sincere  programme  of  reform, 
was  similar  to  that  under  Snr.  Franco's  dictatorship,  except 
that  the  strong  will  had  departed.  The  weakness  and  lenience 
displayed  towards  the  Republicans  did  not  for  a  moment 
disarm  them  ;  the  reforms  proposed  only  served  to  infuriate 
them.  It  was  considered  that  the  strong  hand  had  been  tried 
and  failed,  and  an  opposite  policy  was  adopted.  Almost  the 
new  king  might  have  been  expected  to  go  and  lay  a  wreath 
on  the  tombs  of  the  assassins,  so  conciliatory  was  the  Govern- 
ment. The  Republican  leaders  were  released,  the  basest 
insults  and  calumnies  and  active  conspiracies  were  allowed 
to  go  on  unchecked.  "  Conspiracy  proceeded  on  all  sides  " 
("  Conspiravase  por  toda  a  parte  "),  says  Snr.  Joao  Chagas, 
and  he  ought  to  know.  The  Republicans  looked  forward  to 
a  Portugal  so  different  from  that  of  the  Monarchy  that  it 
would  scarcely  be  recognised.  They  had  no  reforms  to  offer 


From  Monarchy  to  Republic  191 

other  than  those  advocated  by  the  Royalists  and  they  were 
finally  reduced  to  saying  that  what  they  wanted  was — a 
revolution.  "  Only  a  revolution  could  satisfy  the  thirst  for 
justice  of  Portuguese  society :  a  revolution  to  punish  the 
crimes  of  the  dictatorship  and  definitely  expel  the  old  poli- 
ticians from  power."1  But  it  was  not  yet  too  late  for  the 
velhos  politicos  to  stave  off  the  revolution.  Unhappily, 
however,  after  the  death  of  Dom  Carlos  they  appeared  in  all 
their  worst  faults,  with  no  strong  directing  hand  to  restrain 
them.  Dom  Manoel,  thus  at  the  age  of  eighteen  suddenly 
raised  to  the  throne  beyond  all  expectation,  was  in  an  extra- 
ordinarily difficult  position.  His  tastes  inclined  rather  to 
letters  and  music  than  to  the  art  of  government.  He  soon 
found,  moreover,  that  the  party  leaders  were  thinking  not  of 
his  interests,  or  the  interests  of  Portugal,  but  of  their  own. 

The  Ministers  rose  and  fell  at  intervals  of  a  few  weeks.  At 
first  Admiral  Ferreira  do  Amaral  formed  a  coalition  ministry, 
which  naturally  pleased  nobody,  while  its 
weakness  towards  the  Republicans  excited 
criticism.  Had  the  Republicans  been  as 
unconnected  with  the  murder  of  the  King  as  for  the  sake  of 
appearances  they  at  the  time  pretended,  they  would  have  been 
the  first  to  demand  an  instant  and  searching  inquiry  ;  as  it 
was,  the  government,  in  order  to  conciliate  the  Republicans, 
allowed  the  investigations  to  be  rather  a  matter  of  form  than 
anything  else,  and  the  exact  truth  will  now  never  be  estab- 
lished, although  the  inference  is  clear.  Admiral  Ferreira 
do  Amaral  was  succeeded  by  Snr.  Campos  Henriques,  who, 
however,  had  the  support  of  neither  the  Vilhenistas  (Snr.  Julio 
de  Vilhena  had  succeeded  to  the  leadership  of  the  Regenerator 
party  on  the  death  of  Snr.  Hintze  Ribeiro),  nor  of  the  Pro- 
gressistas.  Snr.  Jose  Luciano  de  Castro,  although  himself  in 
retirement,  continued  to  command  the  situation  and  pull  the 
political  wires,  occupying  much  the  same  role  of  Cabinet-maker 
as  Sefior  Montero  Rios  in  Spain.  Snr.  Campos  Henriques 
1  Joao  Chagas,  Cartas  politicas  (December,  1908). 


192  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

was  speedily  succeeded  in  the  Premiership  by  his  War  Minister, 
Snr.  Sebastiao  Telles,  whose  ministry  did  not  last  a  month, 
and  who  was  in  turn  succeeded  by  the  Minister  for  Foreign 
Affairs  of  the  preceding  Cabinet,  Snr.  Wenceslao  de  Lima. 
Snr.  Wenceslao  de  Lima  occupied  a  somewhat  similar  position 
to  that  of  a  Republican  Premier,  Dr.  Bernardino  Machado,  four 
years  later.  His  Ministry  was  formed  with  the  support  of  the 
Regener adores  or  Vilhenistas  and  the  Progressistas  dissident  es 
or  Alpoimistas  (whose  leader,  Dr.  Jos£  d'Alpoim,  was  the 
personal  enemy  of  the  veteran  Snr.  Jose  Luciano  de  Castro). 
But  he  wished  to  please  also  Snr.  Castro's  Progressistas  by 
maintaining  the  Civil  Governors  and  Mayors  appointed  by 
them.  This  is,  of  course,  an  all-important  matter  after  the 
constitution  of  a  Portuguese  Ministry,  for  as  these  officials 
will  make  the  elections  it  is  a  bone  of  contention  to  which 
party  they  shall  belong.  The  difficulty  of  a  non-party 
Ministry  of  Concentration  or  Coalition  is  to  find  a  sufficient 
number  of  non-party  persons  to  fill  these  posts.  In  1914 
Snr.  Bernardino  Machado  was  accused  of  favouring  the 
officials  of  Dr.  Affonso  Costa  as  in  1909  Snr.  Wenceslao  de 
Lima  was  accused  of  favouring  those  of  Snr.  Castro.  And, 
like  the  Almeidistas  and  Camachistas  of  the  later  day,  the 
Alpoimistas  and  Vilhenistas  combined  to  overthrow  the 
Government.  On  21st  December  (1909)  a  new  Cabinet  was 
formed  under  Snr.  Francisco  Beirao.  It  lasted  for  six  months. 
It  was  a  Progressista  Ministry,  and  had  to  face  the  unflagging 
opposition  of  both  Alpoimistas  and  Vilhenistas,  and  of  the 
Republicans.  No  stone  was  left  unturned  to  discredit  the 
Government.  The  sugar  monopoly  "  scandal  "  was  exploited 
to  the  utmost,  and  Dr.  Affonso  Costa  sought  to  implicate 
persons  of  the  Court  in  it.  It  seemed  indeed  that  honesty  was 
only  dear  to  Portuguese  politicians  when  they  were  able  to 
unearth  something  damaging  to  their  opponents.  The 
Ministry  fell  on  the  19th  of  June,  and  after  a  crisis  lasting  a 
fortnight  Snr.  Teixeira  de  Sousa  agreed  to  form  a  Regenerador 
Ministry. 


From  Monarchy  to  Republic  193 

In  the  new  Cabinet  Snr.  Anselmo  de  Andrade  was  Minister 

of  Finance  and  Dr.  Jose  de  Azevedo  Castello  Branco  Minister 

for  Foreign  Affairs.     It  was  this  Regenerador, 

The  Last       or  nominally  Conservative,  Government  which 

the  Monarchy,  proposed  reforms  that  should  have  satisfied 
the  most  ardent  reformers.  They  included 
the  alteration  of  certain  clauses  in  the  Carta  Constitutional. 
the  reorganisation  of  the  House  of  Peers,  the  reform  of  the 
electoral  law  (allowing  proportional  representation  to  Lisbon 
and  Oporto)  of  the  administrative  code  (re-establishing  the 
juntas  geraes  and  so  diminishing  centralisation), 1  of  education, 
of  justice.  It  was  proposed  to  make  civil  registration  com- 
pulsory. The  contract  between  the  State  and  the  Bank  of 
Portugal  was  to  be  revised.  Customs  duties  were  to  be  paid 
in  gold.2  Roads  and  irrigation  were  to  receive  especial 
attention.  Other  measures  were  to  affect  the  Army,  the  Navy, 
the  colonies.  These  are  some  of  the  reforms  sketched  in  the 
speech  from  the  Throne  read  by  King  Manoel  at  the  opening 
of  Parliament  on  the  23rd  of  September,  1910.  Mere  words  ? 
But  it  only  depended  on  the  opponents  of  the  Government  to 
translate  some  of  them  at  least  into  reality.  The  Government 
was  only  too  willing  but,  apart  from  the  opposition  of  the 
Monarchical  parties,  the  Republicans  did  not  want  reform — 
they  wanted  a  revolution.  Had  angels  from  Heaven  drawn 
up  a  programme  of  reforms  the  Republicans  would  still  have 
cried  for  a  revolution.  They  did  not  allow  Snr.  Teixeira 


1  The  decentralisation  was  to  be  less  than  that  granted  in  1878, 
which  over-reached  itself.     Each  Junta  Geral  was  to  be  composed  of 
twenty-five  procurations  (proctors),  whose  duty  it  would  be  to  look 
after  the  general  interests  and  finance  of  the  district,  the  State  conceding 
part  of  its  revenues  to  the  local  treasuries. 

2  Republican   Ministers   of   Finance   have   taken   up   this   project. 
On  the  22nd  of  March,  1912,  Snr.  Sidonio  Paes  introduced  a  Bill,  proposing 
that  all  duties,   excepting  those   on   corn,   rice,   sugar    and   colonial 
products,  should  be  paid   in  gold.     The  idea,   however,   meets  with 
opposition    in    the    Lisbon    commercial    world.     Snr.    Anselmo      ds 
Andrade's  project  referred  to  payment  in  gold  of  one  half  of  the  duty 
only. 

13— (2404) 


194  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

de  Sousa  a  breathing  space  to  carry  out  some  of  these  reforms 
any  more  than  they  had  allowed  it  to  Snr.  Joao  Franco. 

The  elections  had  been  held  on  28th  August,  and  resulted 
in  the  return  of  89  Ministerialists,  41  opposition  Bloquistas, 

and  14  Republicans.     Ten  of  the  latter  were 
RLisbonan      returned  bY  Lisbon  (where  the  voting  was 

proportional).  With  10,000  votes  apiece, 
the  Eastern  section  of  the  capital  returned  Dr.  Bernardino 
Machado,  Dr.  Antonio  Jose  de  Almeida,  Dr.  Affonso  Costa, 
Dr.  Alfredo  de  Magalhaes  and  Dr.  Miguel  Bornbarda,  and  the 
Western  section  Snr.  Joao  de  Menezes,  Admiral  Candido  dos 
Reis,  Dr.  Theophilo  Braga,  Snr.  Alexandre  Braga  and  Snr. 
Antonio  Luis  Gomes.  The  Government  was  in  the  seven 
thousands  in  both  districts,  while  the  candidates  of  the 
Monarchical  Opposition  Bloco  received  5,000  votes  apiece 
in  the  Circulo  Occidental  and  2,000  in  the  Circulo  Oriental. 
The  King,  in  obedience  to  the  natural  wishes  of  Queen  Ame*lie, 
had  not  left  the  Palace  for  some  months  after  the  assassination 
of  the  1st  of  February,  1908,  but  in  the  spring  of  that  year 
he  opened  Parliament  in  State,  and  read  the  Speech  from  the 
Throne.  In  1910  he  was  present  at  King  Edward's  funeral, 
and  in  the  same  year  made  a  journey  through  the  North  of 
Portugal,  which  in  some  districts  became  a  triumphal  progress, 
the  peasants  pressing  eagerly  to  welcome  their  King. 

After  the  opening  of  Parliament  (which  was  then  adj  ourned 
till  the  end  of  the  year),  the  King  proceeded  to  Bussaco  to 

celebrate   the   anniversary   of   the  battle   in 

_   T^e  which,  on  the  27th  of  September,  1810,  Wel- 

Revolution       ..  „,. 

of  1910.        hngton  checked  the  advance  of  Massena.  The 

Duke  of  Wellington  was  present  (as  also, 
according  to  0  Seculo,  "  Sir  Olman,  the  historian  ").  The  King 
held  a  great  military  review.  It  is  reported  that  the  sentiments 
of  the  Army  towards  the  King  were  expressed  in  the  words : 
"  They  killed  the  other  [Dom  Carlos],  but  if  they  touch  this 
one  they  will  have  us  to  deal  with."  A  week  later  the 
Republic  had  been  proclaimed.  On  the  3rd  of  October, 


From  Monarchy  to  Republic  195 

0  Seculo  in  its  weekly  summary  of  events  could  write,  "  Correu 
serena  a  semana — without  anything  worthy  of  mention."  On 
that  very  day  the  Revolution  was  hastened  by  the  act  of  a 
madman,  who  shot  one  of  the  Republican  deputies,  Dr.  Miguel 
Bombarda.  The  crime  was,  of  course,  attributed  to  the 
Royalists,  but  the  Republicans  have  not  shown  that  clemency 
towards  opponents  which  hushed  up  the  details  of  King 
Carlos'  murder,  and  had  the  death  of  Dr.  Bombarda  been  due 
to  something  more  than  the  act  of  a  single  individual,  the  world 
would  have  heard  of  it.  Dr.  Bombarda  had  earlier  sat  in 
Parliament  as  a  Royalist,  but  he  had  recently  joined  the 
Republican  party.  On  the  8th  of  August  he  had  been  the  chief 
organiser  of  an  anti-clerical  demonstration  described  as 
"  the  greatest  demonstration  ever  held  in  Lisbon,"  and  on  the 
28th  of  August  was  elected  one  of  the  ten  Republican  deputies 
for  Lisbon.-  The  Carbonarios  had  been  carefully  organised,  and 
had  done  their  work  well,  so  that  everything  was  prepared  for  a 
revolutionary  movement  now  or  later.  Mutinies  had  already 
occurred  on  men-of-war,  the  marines  having  been  won  over 
to  very  advanced  views,  and  the  loyalty  of  the  First  Artillery 
and  Sixteenth  Infantry  Regiments  had  been  undermined. 
These  regiments,  and  marines  from  men-of-war  in  the  Tagus, 
under  the  command  first  of  Admiral  Candido  dos  Reis  (who, 
under  the  impression,  it  is  said,  that  the  movement  was  a 
failure,  committed  suicide  during  the  night  of  the  3rd),  and 
then  of  the  Carbonario  Lieutenant  Machado  Santos,  were 
able  in  a  few  hours  to  bring  the  Revolution  to  a  successful 
conclusion,  in  the  face  of  the  greater  part  of  the  Army,  which 
was  loyal  to  the  King  :  a  signal  example  of  the  slowness  and 
apathy  which  have  always  permitted  a  handful  of  men  of 
energetic  action  to  impose  themselves  temporarily  in  Portugal. 
According  to  the  Lisbon  Press,  the  total  casualties  of  the  Revo- 
lution were  a  little  over  100  killed  and  500  wounded.  At  eleven 
o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  5th  of  October  the  Republic 
was  formally  proclaimed  at  Lisbon,  and  Dr.  Theophilo  Braga 
installed  as  President  of  the  Provisional  Government.  The 


196  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

provinces  followed  suit  without  a  murmur.  "  If  Lisbon  turns 
Turk  to-morrow,"  Ega  de  Queiroz  had  written,  "  all  Portugal 
will  wear  the  turban."  Lisbon  had  now  turned  Turk,  and  the 
three  other  towns  of  Portugal,  Oporto,  almost  exclusively 
Royalist,  conservative  Coimbra  and  clerical  Braga,  proceeded 
to  don  the  turban.  The  rest  of  the  country  docilely  did  as  it 
was  bidden,  and  in  its  ignorance  was  as  much  affected  by  the 
recent  change  from  Monarchy  to  Republic  as  it  has  been  by 
recent  changes  of  Ministry.  The  King  had  been  entertaining 
the  President-Elect  of  the  Brazilian  Republic,  Marshal  Hermes 
de  Fonseca  at  dinner  in  the  Necessidades  Palace,  on  the  evening 
of  the  3rd.  During  the  night  the  fire  from  two  men-of-war 
in  the  river  below  was  directed  against  the  palace.  Early  on 
the  morning  of  the  4th  the  King,  accompanied  by  a  small 
escort,  left  the  palace,  and  subsequently  embarked  on  the 
Royal  yacht  at  the  little  fishing  village  of  Ericeira,  to  the 
north  of  Cintra  (the  same  which  in  the  sixteenth  century  gave 
its  name,  "  King  of  Ericeira,"  to  one  of  the  Sebastianist 
impostors),  with  Queen  Amelie,  Queen  Maria  Pia,  and  his 
uncle,  the  Duke  of  Oporto. 

The  field  lay  open  to  the  Republicans — professors  who 
dreamed  that  they  would  soon  see  their  doctrines  become 

realities,    professional    politicians    who    had 

waited  lon&  for  their  tum»  Carbonarios  who 
Professors.       nad  been  skilfully  trained   as  spies.       The 

doctrinaires  were  rapidly  disillusioned,  and 
soon  retired  from  active  politics,  leaving  the  more  practical 
politicians  to  go  hand  in  hand  with  the  Carbonarios  if  they 
wished  to  maintain  themselves  in  office.  For  the  moment,  amid 
the  Utopian  dreams  of  a  new  Portugal,  moderation  prevailed. 

On  the  5th  a  proclamation  was  issued  to  the  Portuguese 
people,  marked  by  that  abstract  and  bombastic  style  which 

disfigures  the  literary  work  of  the  President 
Rhetoric.        of    the     Provisional    Government  :       '  The 

maleficent  dynasty  of  Bragan^a,  wilful  dis- 
turber of  social  peace,  has  now  been  proscribed  for  ever.  .  .  . 


From  Monarchy  to  Republic  197 

Now  at  length  terminates  the  slavery  of  our  country,  and, 
luminous  in  its  virginal  essence,  rises  the  beneficent  aspiration 
of  a  regime  of  liberty."  The  good  bourgeois  of  Lisbon  were 
delighted.  They  felt  that  now  at  last  they  had  a  head  of  the 
State  who  knew  how  to  speak.  A  more  practical  proclamation 
was  that  of  the  7th  to  the  effect  that,  "  Since  to-day  there 
can  be  no  foolish  attempts  or  hopes  on  the  part  of  a  regime 
which  has  shamefully  ended  in  a  moral  overthrow  that  adds 
greater  humiliation  to  the  tremendous  lesson  taught  it  by  the 
Republican  arms  .  .  .  there  is  no  reason  for  citizens  to  keep 
in  their  possession  the  arms  of  which  they  made  such  heroic 
use."  Throughout  the  country  was  posted  up  the  decree 
declaring  the  family  of  Bragan9a  proscribed  for  ever,  and  the 
orders  of  nobility  extinct — bringing  to  many  a  village  the  first 
inkling  that  such  a  thing  as  a  revolution  had  occurred.  In 
Lisbon  the  Republicans  had  triumphed  by  sounding  per- 
sistently two  notes,  that  of  the  adeantamentos,  to  prove  that 
the  fall  of  the  Monarchy  would  fill  the  Exchequer,  that  of 
anti- clericalism,  to  show  that  the  religious  orders  were 
withholding  the  wealth  of  the  nation. 

Thus,  apart  from  the  dreams  of  the  doctrinaires,  the  move- 
ment was  essentially  materialistic,   and  what  support  the 

Republicans  had  won  in  the  country  was 
Promises11      obtained  bY  promises  of  cheaper  food  and 

cheaper  houses.  Had  the  revolution  been  a 
proof  that  the  Portuguese  nation  was  alive,  it  might  have  been 
welcomed  at  whatever  cost ;  but  unfortunately  it  was  the 
outcome  of  the  nation's  apathy,  which  gave  a  free  hand  to  a 
comparatively  small  body  of  politicians  imbued  with  foreign 
ideas.  And  had  the  Republicans  been  as  practical  as  they 
were  materialistic,  the  Revolution  might,  again,  have  been 
welcomed  ;  but  they  looked  rather  to  abstract  principles- 
positivism,  liberty,  humanity — than  to  the  actual  conditions 
in  Portugal.  How  materialistic  was  the  creed  of  the  Repub- 
licans may  be  gathered  from  the  following  quotation  from 
0  Seculo  a  few  days  after  the  Revolution  :  "  The  Court  is  not 


198  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

wanted  because  with  the  exception  of  two  or  three  noble 
houses  of  large  fortune,  it  consisted  of  persons  without  money. 
.  .  .  The  bourgeoisie  is  the  safe  of  the  nation,  and  it  is  nearly 
all  on  the  side  of  the  Republic."  Rarely  has  franker  expres- 
sion been  given  to  the  unmannerly  creed  that  families  in  which 
civilisation  is  a  tradition  of  centuries,  and  which  have  often 
done  signal  service  to  their  country,  should  be  cast  aside  if 
they  happen  to  be  poor.  How  naif  was  the  Republican 
idea  of  Monarchy  is  shown  by  the  remark  in  the  same  leading 
article  of  the  same  newspaper :  '  The  man  who  presides 
over  the  destinies  of  the  nation  is  now  no  longer  a  man  in  high 
boots  and  flowing  robe  with  a  little  stick  in  his  right  hand  ; 
he  is  a  man  dressed  like  any  other." 

And  the  new  President,  Dr.  Theophilo  Braga,  declared  on  the 
15th  of  October  that  "  Science  tells  us  that  monarchies  have 

no  raison  d'etre  because  they  humiliate  the 
Humiliating  men  who  a  t  them/>  Thus  in  a  brief 
Monarchy. 

sentence   all   the   nations   of   the   North   of 

Europe  are  dismissed  humiliated.  It  was  a  moment  of 
pardonable  excitement,  and  some  sincere  Republicans  believed 
that  a  new  era  of  peace  and  prosperity  had  dawned  for 
Portugal. 


CHAPTER  XII 

RECENT  EVENTS 

IT  may  have  been  hoped  by  many  both  in  Portugal  and 
abroad  that  a  new  period  of  well-being  for  Portugal  had  begun. 
It  was  known  that  the  change  had  been 
effected  bY  a  sma11  section  of  Portuguese  at 
Lisbon,  but  there  was  apparently  some 
expectation  that  this  small  section  would  gradually  extend 
its  influence  until  the  Portuguese  Republic  and  the  Portuguese 
people  had  indeed  become  one.  It  was  believed,  especially 
outside  of  Portugal,  that  the  corrupt  and  inefficient  interplay 
of  party  cliques  at  Lisbon  was  for  ever  at  an  end,  and  it  was 
also  believed,  especially  in  Portugal,  that  the  magic  of  the 
name  Republic  would  restore  prosperity  to  the  national 
finances.  Better  administration,  the  development  of  Portu- 
gal's resources,  decentralisation,  the  improvement  of  condi- 
tions in  the  colonies,  these  were  some  of  the  problems  by  which 
the  Republicans  were  confronted.  Foreign  opinion  was 
prepared  to  support  a  regime  which  should  encourage  all  that 
was  best  in  the  country,  peasant  and  nobleman  alike,  to 
co-operate  in  this  huge  effort  of  regeneration.  A  small 
minority,  of  course,  refused  to  co-operate,  and  the  mass  of  the 
people  relapsed  into  indifference  as  it  became  apparent  that 
the  Republicans,  far  from  attracting  waverers  and  conciliating 
their  opponents,  intended  to  rule  as  one  clique  more  rather 
than  as  representatives  of  the  Portuguese  nation.  The  first 
Parliament  of  the  Republicans,  packed  with  their  supporters, 
the  municipal  authorities  appointed  from  Lisbon,  the  electoral 
law  delayed  from  session  to  session,  the  "  invention  "  of  the 
clerical  question,  were  so  many  indications  of  the  gulf  existing 
between  the  Republic  and  the  country,  and  that  the 
Republicans  were  aware  of  their  isolation. 

199 


200  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

"  Ordem  e  Trabalho  "•  •"  Order  and  Work  "  was  the  motto 
chosen  by  the  Republic,  but  with  that  Portuguese  love  of 
words  for  their  own  sake  or  for  the  sake  of 
Trabafho  "  appearances,  the  legend  was  far  removed 
from  the  reality.  On  the  very  day  after  the 
citizens  of  Lisbon  had  been  requested  to  give  up  their  arms 
an  assault  was  organised  on  the  Convent  of  Quelhas.  From 
the  windows  or  roof  of  the  convent  Jesuits  were  said  to  have 
fired  repeatedly  on  the  mob,  and  to  reconcile  this  assertion 
with  the  fact  that  the  convent  when  entered  was  found  to  be 
empty,  underground  passages  were  devised  for  their  escape, 
although  in  reality  such  passages  did  not  exist.  A  few  days 
later  more  firing  was  reported  from  the  Jesuit  convent  at 
Campolide,  described  by  the  Republican  Press  as  a  "  fortress 
of  murderers  and  brigands."  In  the  next  few  months  all  the 
offices  of  Royalist  newspapers  were  attacked  and  wrecked, 
both  at  Lisbon  and  in  the  provinces.  At  Coimbra  and 
elsewhere  the  Royalist  and  the  Catholic  Clubs  were  assaulted 
and  plundered. 

Apart  from  the  activity  of  the  Carbonarios,  the  first  months 

of  the  Republic  were  marked  by  an  almost  equal  number  of 

decrees  and  strikes.     Every  day  the  Diario  do 

Decrees.        Governo  came  out  bursting  with  new  decrees, 

the  Provisional  Government  being  determined 

to  make  hay  before  the  slower  procedure  of  Parliamentary 

forms  came  to  check  progress. 

And  nearly  every  day  one  or  several  classes  of  workmen, 

taking  advantage  of  the  new  permission  to  strike,  struck. 

The  strikes  were  the  reality,  the  decrees  were 

Strikes.         too    often    theoretical,1    although    some    of 

them,   such   as   that   of   agricultural   credit, 

2nd  February,   1911,  were  excellent  in  principle.     0  Seculo 

might  speak  with  complacency  of  "  the  evident  identification 

of  the  people  with  the  Government,"  of  "  the  close  union 

1  "  Legislation    for    the    moon,"    according    to    the    Republican 
O  Intransigente. 


Recent  Events  201 

between  the  people  and  the  Government,"  but  all  these  decrees 
and  the  new  Constitution  provided  by  the  Constituent  Assem- 
bly left  the  people  cold.  The  salaries  voted  to  themselves 
by  its  representatives  in  Parliament  did  not  fill  it  with  enthu- 
siasm :  it  would  have  preferred  cheaper  bacalhau.  The 
octroi  duty  on  certain  articles  was  remitted,  but  it  was  soon 
discovered  that  while  the  State  lost  several  hundred  contos  the 
price  of  the  articles  did  not  dimmish. 

The  people  found  but  small  compensation  in  the  clauses  of 
the  Constitution  which  declared  that  "  The  sovereignty  belongs 

essentially  to  the  nation,"  or  "  Members  of 
Constitution      the  Congress  are  representatives  of  the  nation 

and  not  of  the  clubs  which  elect  them."  Each 
Parliament  was  to  last  three  years,  and  each  year  was  to  have 
one  session  of  four  months,  from  2nd  December  to  2nd  April. 
Parliament  cannot  be  dissolved  before  the  end  of  three  years 
(the  result  being  that  the  frequent  changes  of  government 
are  not  even  in  appearance  connected  with  the  people). 
Senators  are  elected  for  six  years,  half  their  number  being 
renewed  at  the  elections  to  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  every 
three  years. 

The  President  of  the  Republic  must  be  of  Portuguese 
nationality  and  over  thirty-five  years  of  age.     He  is  elected 

for  four  years,  and  cannot  be  President  twice 
President        in   succession.1     For   the   first   term   of   the 

Presidency  (August,  1911,  to  August,  1915) 
Dr.  Manoel  de  Arriaga  was  elected. 2  Ten  days  after  the  elec- 
tion of  the  President,  Snr.  Joao  Chagas,  since  the  Revolution 

1  The  President  only  receives  18  contos,  under  ^4,000,  a  year. 

2  Dr.  Manoel  de  Arriaga  121  votes,  Dr.  Bernardino  Machado  86 
votes   (24th  August,    1911).     The  first  President  of  the  Portuguese 
Republic  comes  of  an  ancient  family  and  has  a  Basque  name  ("  the 
place  of  stones,"  or  "  a  heap  of  stones,"  arri  being  probably  the  same 
word  as  in  Biarritz  :    two  rocks).     He  was  born  at  Horta  on  the  8th 
of    July,   1840,  and  studied  at  Coimbra.       For  some  years  he  was 
professor  of   English  at  the  Lisbon  Lycie.     He  was  elected  deputy 
for    Madeira.       Besides    some    well-known    volumes    of    poems     it 
may   be    noted    that   he    published    in    1889    an   essay    condemning 


202  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

Portuguese  Minister  in  Paris,  formed  the  first  regular 
Government  of  the  Republic  (3rd  September,  1911). 

It  did  not  last  ten  weeks  ;   a  period  which  included  the  first 

Royalist    incursion    under    Captain    Paiva    Conceiro.     The 

expedition  was  not  of  great  importance.    The 

R  FlaT  danger  to  the  Republic  lay  in  the  possibility 

Incursion.       °f  the  whole  of  the  North  of  Portugal  rising 

in  favour  of  the  Monarchy  ;    but,  although 

there  were  many  isolated  disturbances  they  just  failed  to 

break    into    a   general    conflagration.     The    organisation    of 

Carbonario  spies  throughout  the  country  and  the  municipal 

authorities  appointed  by  the  Republicans  undoubtedly  acted 

as  a  powerful  check  on  the  inhabitants. 

On  the  4th  of  September  Snr.  Chagas  had  read  his  minis- 
terial statement  to  Parliament.       His  principal  object,  he 
said,  was  to  carry  on  the  work  begun  by  the 

s"r:  9haS.a?'     patriotic  and  disinterested  members  of  the 
Ministerial  _ 

Statement.       Provisional   Government,    and    his   principal 

care  to  reconcile  the  work  initiated  by  them 
with  the  situation  of  the  Republic's  finances.  The  Republic 
was  to  be  a  regime  of  conciliation  for  all  Portuguese.  Some 
days  later  the  Premier  addressed  a  large  crowd  from  a  window 
of  the  Ministerio  of  the  Interior.  That  day,  he  said,  was  the 
last  of  the  revolutionary  period,  and  began  a  period  of  order, 
peace  and  work.  Unfortunately  it  did  nothing  of  the  kind, 
and  Snr.  Chagas  was  glad  to  get  back  to  Paris. l  Snr.  Chagas' 
promises  had  been  too  moderate  to  satisfy  the  extremists. 
Reconciliation  of  all  Portuguese  was  a  large  order  for  the 

the  penitentiary  system.  Although  Dr.  Arriaga  has  never,  during  the 
last  forty  years  or  more,  swerved  from  his  Republican  principles,  he 
has  done  his  utmost  as  President  to  moderate  the  action  of  the  extre- 
mists, and  to  secure  for  the  Republic  that  respect  and  affection  which 
are  universally  felt  towards  himself. 

1  Snr.  Chagas,  more  pamphleteer  than  statesman,  is,  like  many 
educated  Portuguese,  intimately  acquainted  with  Paris  and  with 
modern  French  literature.  In  English  literature  his  interest  is  slight, 
if  we  may  judge  from  his  remark  that  "  Hamlet  is  very  boring."  Yet 
he  admires  that  modern  Hamlet,  M.  Anatole  France. 


Recent  Events  203 

Democrats  who  were  never  tired  of  demonstrating  that  a 
Portuguese  Royalist  was  far  worse  than  an  assassin. 

The  new  Ministry  under  the  Premiership  of  Dr.  Augusto 

de  Vasconcellos  was  presented  to  Parliament  on  the  16th  of 

November,  1911.     Dr.  Vasconcellos  declared 

Dr.  Augusto  that  the  Government  would  be  decidedly  anti- 
de  Vasconcellos.  .  J 

clerical.     He  spoke  of  the  urgent   need  of 

adapting  administration  to  the  actual  political  condition  of 
the  country,  and  of  creating  "  an  atmosphere  of  tranquillity, 
peace,  and  confidence."  The  Government  received  the  sup- 
port of  the  leaders  of  the  various  tendencies  of  Republican 
politics  which  had  now  crystallised  into  separate  parties, 
Dr.  Affonso  Costa,  Dr.  Antonio  Jose  de  Almeida,  and  Dr.  Brito 
Camacho. l  Yet  all  was  not  plain  sailing  for  the  Government. 
Snr.  Machado  Santos  even  declared  (0  Intransigente,  8th 
December,  1911)  that  every  day  that  passed  discontent 
increased.  And  the  Seculo,  four  days  later,  said  :  "  Unless 
Portuguese  politicians  leave  little  party  questions  on  one 
side,  and  devote  themselves  seriously  to  the  economic  develop- 
ment of  the  country,  the  country  is  doomed."  "  The  Par- 
liamentary system  has  only  served  to  embarrass  for  the  most 
part  the  normal  life  of  the  nation  "  (0  Seculo,  12th  December, 
1911).  The  Budget,  according  to  the  same  newspaper 
(28th  December,  1911)  was  "  but  a  very  close  copy  of  those 
of  the  Monarchy."  And  while  it  was  found  impossible  to 
allow  sufficient  money  for  the  most  urgent  expenses  of  schools 
and  roads,  the  Minister  of  Marine  presented  a  project  to 
construct  three  20,000  ton  cruisers,  twelve  torpedo  destroyers, 
etc.,  at  a  total  expense  of  45,000  contos. 

At  the  end  of  January,  1912,  a  revolutionary  strike  at 
Lisbon,  coinciding  with  a  widely  extended  strike  movement 
in  Alemtejo,  was  met  by  the  Government  with  the  declaration 
of  martial  law,  and  the  arrest  of  over  a  thousand  suspected 
Syndicalists  and  workmen.  It  was  during  the  weakness  of 

1  Dr.  Brito  Camacho  regarded  his  party  as  a  kind  of  make-weight 
between  the  Radical  and  Conservative  tendencies. 


204  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

this   and    the  following  Government    that  the   Carbonarios 
were  allowed  to  commit  some  of  their  worst  outrages  with 

impunity.      The  "  laws  of  defence  "  voted  by 
Disturbances.     Parliament  at  the  beginning  of  July  on  the 

occasion  of  the  second  Royalist  incursion  were 
opposed  even  by  O  Seculo,  which  remarked  in  a  leading 
article  (6th  July,  1912)  :  "  It  is  certain  that  we  are  thus 
entering  upon  a  purely  arbitrary  regime  which  will  no  doubt 
be  temporary  but  which  nevertheless  is  a  detestable  instance 
of  the  Parliament  abdicating  in  favour  of  the  Government, 
of  this  and  succeeding  Governments.  .  .  .  The  laws  to  which 
we  are  referring  are  so  vague  and  indefinite  that  they  favour 
any  desire  of  persecution  or  vengeance."  Since  the  Royalist 
"  army  "  was  as  negligible  as  in  the  autumn  of  the  preceding 
year  the  excitement  was  deliberately  fanned  by  the 
Carbonarios. 

It  was  during  the  second  Royalist  incursion  in  the  summer 
of    1912    that    Dom    Joao    d' Almeida,    a    Portuguese    of 

noble  family,   serving  as  an  officer  in  the 
?'AIme?da       Austrian    army,    was    taken    prisoner.      His 

sentence  of  six  years'  confinement  in  a  solitary 
cell  in  the  Penitenciaria,  to  be  followed  by  ten  years  of  deporta- 
tion to  a  penal  settlement,  was  severe,  but  under  the  circum- 
stances, naturally  so.  Unfortunately,  however,  for  its  credit, 
the  Republic  neglected  to  treat  him  as  an  officer  and  a 
gentleman. 

Persons  known  to  be  Royalist  were  set  upon  in  the  street, 
beaten,  wounded,  and  then  arrested  as  conspirators.     But 

the   worst   feature   was   the   encouragement 

^ven  bv  the   Democrat   Press  to   the   Per- 
petrators of  these  outrages.     The  murder  of 

Lieutenant  Soares  elicited  no  protest  from  the  Republican 
Press.  It  was  not  till  September  that  A  Republica,  organ  of 
the  moderate  Republicans,  found  its  voice  to  protest  generally 
against  the  abuses  :  "  The  number  of  those  who  dislike  or 
distrust  the  Republic  or  have  retired  from  politics  is  enormous, 


Recent  Events  205 

owing  to  the  narrow  persecutions  of  the  demagogues,  headed 
by  Dr.  Affonso  Costa." l  On  the  16th  of  June  Snr.  Duarte  Leite 
constituted  another  coalition  government  (Democrats,  Evolu- 
tionists, Unionists,  Independents)  in  succession  to  that  of 
Dr.  Augusto  de  Vasconcellos,  who  remained  in  office  as 
Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs.  Parliament  met  a  little  before 
the  date  fixed  by  the  Constitution,  and  the  Government  was 
soon  in  crisis.  Discontent  was  fairly  general.  An  attempted 
coup  d'etat  by  advanced  Republicans  had  occurred  at  Oporto. 
No  municipal  elections  had  been  held  since  the  Revolution. 
The  statement  made  to  Parliament  by  the  new  Finance 
Minister,  Snr.  Antonio  Vicente  Ferreira  in  November,  con- 
cerning the  financial  situation  did  not  mend 

The  Financial    matters.     He    admitted    that    the    finances 
Situation. 

were  in  a  most  serious  state,  and  that  the 

deficit  would  be  enormous.  "  As  there  can  be  no  doubt," 
said  0  Seculo  (4th  December,  1912),  "  that  waste  is  going  on, 
and  indeed  increasing  precisely  when  it  seemed  that  it  should 
have  disappeared,  the  logical  and  irrefutable  conclusion  is : 
The  politicians  of  the  Republic  are  personally  as  honest  as 
may  be,  but  as  administrators  of  the  public  finances  they  rank 
with  what  was  bad  in  the  administration  under  the  Monarchy. 
Is  this  due  to  discreditable  concessions  ?  to  weakness  or 
cowardice  ?  We  do  not  know." 

The  Government  was  demissionario  before  the  end  of  the 
year,  and  after  a  fortnight  of  attempts  to  constitute  a  moderate 
Government,  Dr.  Affonso  Costa  was  sent  for 

b^  the  President  and  on  the  9th  of  January 
formed,  with  a  ministry  of  nonentities,  the 
fifth  government  of  the  Republic.  2  This  Democrat  Ministry 
maintained  itself  in  office  for  a  little  over  a  year,  and  during 

1  It  must  be  remembered  that  these  are  the  words  of  a  party  organ 
anxious  to  overthrow  Dr.  Costa's  influence.     When  Dr.  Costa  fell  in 
1914  the  Evolutionists  found  themselves  quite  incapable  of  forming  a 
Ministry. 

2  The  Minister  of  Public  Works  was  Snr.  Antonio  Maria  da  Silva, 
a  member  of  the  Alta  Venda  of  the  Carbonaria. 


206  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

that  time  some  of  the  worst  elements  of  the  Republic  were  in 
clover.  0  Mundo,  under  the  editorship  of  Snr.  Franca  Borges, 
now  became  an  official  organ,  and  made  full  use  of  its  new 
opportunities.  In  its  inquisitorial  ardour  it  spared  not  even  the 
impartial  and  moderate  Diario  de  Noticias  nor  the  distin- 
guished poet  who  was  serving  the  Republic  as  its  Minister  in 
Berne,  Snr.  Guerra  Junqueiro,  nor  the  President  of  the 
Republic,  nor  any  moderate  person.  The  Carbonarios, 
moreover,  knew  that  whatever  they  did  would  be  supported 
by  the  Government,  and  the  Government,  by  organising  new 
groups  of  Carbonarios  in  its  special  service,  saw  to  it  that 
whatever  they  did  should  benefit  the  Democrat  party.  The 
Democrats,  the  Carbonarios  and  the  Mundo  formed  a  trinity 
which  came  very  near  to  being  as  disastrous  to  the  Republic 
as,  according  to  the  Democrats,  the  "  august  trinity  of  Bra- 
gan£as,  Jesuits  and  English  "  had  been  disastrous  to  Portugal. 
Dr.  Costa,  when  Premier,  declared  that  he  agreed  with  every 
word  written  in  0  Mundo.  It  is  the  creed  of  the  Democrats 
that  outside  the  Republic  there  are  no  Portuguese,  and  outside 
the  Democrat  party  there  are  no  Republicans.  Those  who  do 
not  belong  to  the  Democrat  party  can,  therefore,  scarcely  be 
good  Republicans. 

Yet  it  became  impossible  in  1913  to  continue  to  ascribe  all 
disturbances  to  the  Royalists.  The  movements  of  April  and 
July  of  that  year  and  the  bomb  thrown  at  the 
Procession  in  honour  of  Camoes  on  the  10th  of 
June,  killing  and  wounding  several  persons, 
were  the  work  of  Anarchist  and  Radical  Republican  elements. 
Yellow  badges  inscribed  with  the  letters  R.R.  (Republica 
Radical)  were  freely  distributed,  and  the  number  of  bombs 
manufactured  in  Lisbon  was  so  great  that  even  the  Republicans 
who  had  exalted  the  bomb  as  the  instrument  of  liberty,  began 
to  like  it  less  when  it  was  directed  against  themselves.  Well- 
intentioned  Republicans  were  exhorted  to  give  up  the  bombs 
in  their  possession,  and  after  July  hundreds  of  bombs  were 
thus  daily  delivered  voluntarily  or  discovered  by  the  police 


Recent  Events  207 

in  Lisbon.  The  Mundo,  which  continued  to  harp  on  the  time- 
honoured  theme  that  the  bomb-throwers  were  Jesuits,  must 
have  failed  to  convince  even  the  most  enthusiastic  of  its 
readers.  Obviously  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  Republic, 
Royalist  conspiracies  were  far  preferable  to  these  plots  and 
disturbances  within  the  very  bosom  of  the  Republic. 

As  early  as  February,  1913,  on  the  day  after  Snr.  Machado 
Santos'  Amnesty  Bill  had  been  discussed  in  Parliament,  the 
Alta  Venda  of  the  Carbonarios  had  posted  up 
a  notice  in  the  streets  of  Lisbon,  warning 
citizens  that  the  Royalists  were  actively 
conspiring.  Rigorous  vigilance,  said  the  notice,  is  needed ; 
all  Portuguese  worthy  of  the  name  must  be  at  their  posts  to 
destroy  the  miserable  plots  of  the  reactionaries.  The  warning, 
subsequently  explained  Snr.  Luz  Almeida,  head  of  the  Car- 
bonarios, was  dictated  by  fear  of  "  the  wave  of  false  generosity 
which  was  invading  the  spirit  of  sincere  Republicans."  In 
other  words,  there  had  been  serious  talk  of  an  amnesty  for  the 
political  prisoners  with  which  the  prisons  throughout  the 
country  had  been  crowded  since  the  proclamation  of  the 
Republic.  In  December,  1912,  the  President  addressed  a 
letter  to  the  Government  in  favour  of  an  amnesty  for  the 
prisoners  and  the  recall  of  the  bishops.  The  Government 
did  not  see  its  way  to  grant  either,  but  in  the  following  October, 
on  the  third  anniversary  of.  the  Republic,  a  pardon  (indulto) 
was  given  to  some  three  hundred  among  the  uneducated 
prisoners  of  the  Penitenciarias,  who  sought  it  as  a  favour.  The 
injustice  was  manifest,  especially  as  it  was  not  among  the 
uneducated  classes  that  persons  were  most  likely  to  have  been 
arrested  and  imprisoned  merely  for  their  Royalist  opinions. 
The  "  defenders  of  the  Republic  "  did  not  intend  the  cells 
thus  vacant  in  the  Penitenciarias  to  be  left  long  unoccupied, 
and  they  were  to  be  filled  by  persons  of  higher  social 
importance  than  the  released  peasants. 

The  "  Royalist  movement  "  of  October,  1913,  was  prepared 
by  means  of  agents  provocateurs,  with  the  object  of  making  a 


208  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

clean  sweep  of  all  those  suspected  of  being  unfriendly  to  the 
Republic  who  were  not  yet  in  prison.  The  most  celebrated 
of  these  agents,  Homero  de  Lencastre,  suc- 
ceeded  in  securing  the  arrest  of  the  Conde 
de  Mangualde  and  other  Royalists,  and  the 
movement  thus  organised  became  a  pretext  for  arresting  Royal- 
ists by  the  score.  The  proof  of  the  existence  of  the  Royalist 
movement  consisted  chiefly  in  these  arrests.  The  first  and 
last  items  on  the  programme  of  the  "  White  Ants "  and 
Carbonarios  were — arrests.  The  Lisbon  police  had  not  been 
taken  into  the  confidence  of  these  unofficial  defenders  of  the 
Republic.  In  the  words  of  the  head  of  the  Lisbon  police 
himself :  "  Neither  the  Minister  of  the  Interior  nor  the  Civil 
Governor  ever  gave  the  Lisbon  police  any  definite  information 
concerning  the  '  conspiracy,'  with  which  the  Oporto  police, 
it  was  said,  was  acquainted  in  all  its  details.  Only  vague 
words  :  '  A  great  affair,'  '  we  are  on  a  volcano,'  '  the  men 
are  working  bravely,'  and  so  forth.  Certain  indications 
were  received  from  the  police  at  Oporto,  but  these  indications 
were  very  vague :  '  Many  people  compromised,'  '  over  four 
hundred  officers  have  signed  documents  with  their  own 
blood,'  and  so  forth."  Muita  gente  compromettida  :  there  in 
three  words  is  the  raison  d'etre  of  the  October  "  Royalist 
conspiracy  "  which  succeeded  in  overcrowding  the  prisons 
throughout  the  country  till  the  Amnesty  Bill  was  passed  in 
the  following  February.  Snr.  Azevedo  Coutinho  almost  alone 
succeeded  in  escaping,  on  board  an  English  boat,  to  the 
extreme  mortification  of  the  Carbonarios. 

The  partial  election  of  members  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies, 
rendered  necessary  by  the  vacancies  due  to  deaths,  resigna- 
tions, and  diplomatic  and  other  appointments, 

Were    held    °n    the    16th    °f    November>    and 
resulted,  as  had  been  foreseen,  in  the  return  of 

Democrats  for  all  but  two  constituencies.  Dr.  Affonso  Costa 
thus  had  a  good  working  majority  in  the  Lower  House,  which 
enabled  him  to  dispense  with  the  support  of  the  Unionists, 


DOORWAY    OF    THE    UNFINISHED    CHAPELS,    BATALHA 

[See  p.  96 


Recent  Events  209 

by  which  he  had  been  kept  in  office  during  the  earlier  part  of 
the  year. 

The  majority  in  the  Senate  was,  however,  anti-Democrat. 
Thus  a  difficult  situation  arose  which  in  the  beginning  of  the 
following  year  led  to  a  deadlock  between  the 
Government    and    Parliament.     A    senator, 
Snr.    Joao    de    Freitas,    had    made    certain 
accusations  against  the  Premier,  Dr.  Affonso  Costa,  and  the 
Premier,  instead  of  attending  in  the  Senate  to  refute  the 
charges,  answered  by  a  letter  which  the  acting  President  of 
the  Senate  considered  lacking  in  respect  to  that  House,  and 
therefore  refused  to  read.     The  Government  thereupon  in  its 
turn  refused  to  have  anything  to  do  with  the  sittings  of  the 
Senate,  and  it  therefore  became  impossible  to  carry  through 
certain  necessary  business  such  as  the  passing  of  the  Budget. 
At   the   same   time   the  Government   was   threatened   with 
another  general  strike,  and  to  avert  this  it  adopted  the  old 
method  of  surrounding  the  building  in  which  the  strikers 
held  their  meetings  and  arresting  hundreds  of  workmen.     This 
did  not  add  to  the  popularity  of  the  Government,  which  was 
already  hated  owing  to  the  arrest  of  hundreds  of  Republicans 
after  the  April  and  July  disturbances.     The  prisoners  had 
been  sent  partly  to  Elvas  and  partly  to  Angra  do  Heroisno, 
since  the  prisons  of  the  capital  were  insufficient.     The  Lisbon 
Republican    Press,  which  had  kept  silence  concerning  the 
sufferings  and  ill-treatment  of  the  Royalist  prisoners  and  the 
condition  of  the  prisons,  now  told  of  the  sufferings  and  ill- 
treatment  of  the  Republican  prisoners,  of  the  insanitary  state 
of  the  prisons,  and  the  badness  and  insufficiency  of  the  food. 
A  demonstration  was  actually  held  in  Lisbon  against  the 
Government  of  Dr.  Affonso  Costa,  and  a  large  crowd,  organised 
by  Snr.  Machado  Santos,  proceeded  to  the  palace  of  Belem, 
where  the  President  of  the  Republic  lives,  to  show  their  wish 
for  an  amnesty,  which  the  Democrat  Government  had  declared 
unnecessary  and  inopportune. 

It  was  evident  that  Dr.   Costa's  days  as  Premier  were 
14— (2404) 


210  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

numbered,  and  when  the  President  addressed  to  him  a  letter 

proposing  that  a  government  of  concentration  should  be  formed 

in  order  to  grant  an  amnesty,  revise  in  a  more 

President  moderate  sense  the  Law  of  Separation  between 
Letter. S  Church  and  State,  pass  the  Budget  and 
hold  the  General  Election,  the  Government 
resigned  (25th  January,  1914).  A  crisis  of  over  a  fortnight 
ensued.  The  Democrat  Government  had  fallen  because  it 
was  in  opposition  to  the  President  of  the  Republic,  to  the 
majority  in  the  Senate,  and  to  public  opinion.  The  President 
had  been  on  the  point  of  resigning  more  than  once  during  the 
last  two  years  as  he  saw  his  moderate  policy  ruthlessly  cast 
aside  by  the  extremists.  His  definite  resolution  to  resign 
unless  his  conciliatory  policy  were  now  adopted,  produced  its 
effect.  But  the  Democrats  still  had  a  strong  majority  in 
the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  which  made  it  impossible  for  the 
Evolutionists  or  Unionists  to  form  a  Ministry.  The  attempt 
to  constitute  a  non-party  Government  also  failed.  One  of  the 
most  significant  features  of  the  crisis  was  the  extreme  unwil- 
lingness of  the  abler  Republican  politicians  to  take  office. 
It  was  not  till  the  9th  of  February  that  Snr.  Bernardino 
Machado  was  able  to  constitute  a  Cabinet,  all  the  new 
Ministers,  with  the  exception  of  the  Premier,  holding  office 
for  the  first  time.  The  Premier  took  the  portfolio  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  as  in  1910-11,  and  retained  it  during  three  months, 
until  Snr.  Freire  de  Andrade  was  appointed. 

The  Ministry  came  into  power  with  the  solemn  obligation 

of  immediately  introducing  an  amnesty  to  Parliament.     Ten 

days  later  (19th  February)  it  redeemed  this 

Amnesty  promise,  and  after  an  all-night  sitting  the 
Amnesty  Bill  was  passed  in  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies.  The  amendments  made  by  the  Senate  were 
rejected  by  the  Lower  House,  and  the  Bill  as  voted  by  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies  became  law  on  the  21st  of  February.  The 
terms  of  the  Bill  were  unsatisfactory  and  gave  rise  to  much 
criticism,  but  its  actual  results  were  all  that  could  be  desired. 


Recent  Events  211 

All  the  political  prisoners  without  exception  were  released, 
and  only  eleven  "  leaders "  or  "  instigators,"  among  the 
thousands  of  prisoners  and  emigres,  were  banished,  for  a  space 
of  ten  years.  A  less  creditable  clause  was  that  by  which  all 
abuses  of  authority  were  included  in  the  amnesty.  The  clause 
by  which  all  the  untried  prisoners  were  to  be  tried  subse- 
quently to  their  release  received  widespread  criticism,  and  was 
often  misinterpreted,  as  was  but  natural  considering  its  strange 
and  apparently  contradictory  character.  For  the  law 
expressly  said  that  these  persons  even  if  sentenced  to  imprison- 
ment could  not  be  imprisoned.  Then  why  try  them  ?  it  was 
said.  The  reason  apparently  was  to  have  an  opportunity  to 
distinguish  who  were  leaders  or  instigators,  and  also  to  show 
that  these  persons  had  not  been  arrested  unjustifiably.  Another 
point  more  justly  criticised  was  the  indefinite  power  conferred 
by  the  law  to  banish  leaders  and  instigators.  Only  eleven 
persons,  however,  were  regarded  as  leaders,  and  not  allowed  to 
return  to  Portugal,  whereas  it  was  calculated  that  the  amnesty 
would  include  some  3,000  persons,  of  whom  572  were  untried 
prisoners  and  1,700  emigres.  The  new  Government  was  obliged 
to  walk  circumspectly,  for  although  it  leaned  towards  the 
Democrats  and  consulted  the  wishes  of  Dr.  Affonso  Costa,  it 
did  not  content  the  extremists  of  that  party,  and  it  contented 
scarcely  anyone  else.  It  did  not  profess  to  look  upon  itself 
as  more  than  a  stop-gap  ministry,  temporarily  pouring  oil 
on  the  troubled  waters  between  a  storm  and  a  storm. 

It  was  succeeded  by  a  Democrat  ministry,  presided  over  by 

Snr.   Victor   Hugo  d'Azevedo,   Democrat   President   of  the 

Chamber    of    Deputies.     Regardless    of    the 

Seventh         fact  that  a  great  World  War  was  now  raging, 
Republican  ,        ,.,.     , 

Government,     the  thoughts  of  political  parties  were  bent 

almost  exclusively  upon  the  forthcoming 
elections.  The  real  reason  for  the  fall  of  Dr.  Bernardino 
Machado's  Government  was  that  the  Democrats  were  deter- 
mined to  run  no  risks  and  to  make  the  elections  themselves. 
For  this  it  was  essential  to  have  a  Democrat  at  the  Ministry 


212  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

of  the  Interior,  and  Dr.  Alexandre  Braga,  considered  to  have 
much  skill  in  the  political  intrigues  required,  was  accordingly 
appointed  Minister  of  the  Interior.  Everything  seemed  to 
point  to  an  overwhelming  return  of  Democrats  at  the  election. 
Press,  Opposition,  public  opinion  were  gagged,  telegrams  to 
the  foreign  Press  suppressed.  "  Ministerial  oppression,"  said 
General  Pimenta  de  Castro,  "  reached  such  a  point  that  even 
liberty  of  thought  was  strangled."  A  packed  Democrat 
Parliament  seemed  assured.  But  there  were  two  elements 
which  proved  too  vigorous  to  be  gagged  and  bound.  One  of 
these  was  the  bitter  discontent  of  the  other  political  parties 
who  saw  the  elections  escaping  them  ;  the  other  was  dis- 
content in  the  Army.  When  the  Democrat  Government  pro- 
ceeded to  interfere  with  the  Army  and,  moreover,  attempted 
to  hamper  the  President  of  the  Republic's  action,  and  to  force 
him  into  declaring  martial  law,  the  cup  brimmed  over,  and  a 
military  pronunciamento  led  to  the  fall  of  the  Ministry  and  to 
the  appointment  of  General  Pimenta  de  Castro. 

The  Democrats  still  had  a  majority  in  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies,  but,  when  they  attempted  to  meet  and  "  confer  of 
their  miserable  fall,"  like  Satan  and  his  angels 
de'castro  on  *^e  burning  lake,  they  found  the  entrance 
of  the  Congresso  guarded  against  them.  The 
country  had  had  enough  of  their  constitutional  hypocrisies. 
From  thenceforward  General  Pimenta  de  Castro's  Govern- 
ment, welcome  to  the  country,  went  serenely  on  its  way, 
although  bitterly  attacked  by  the  Democrat  opposition  which 
even  went  to  the  length  of  spreading  abroad  in  their  Press 
that  the  Government  was  responsible  for  the  rise  in  prices, 
although  it  was  well  known  —  to  all  but  the  ignorant  readers 
of  such  newspapers — that  the  pinch  of  the  war  would  be  felt 
in  the  Spring.  The  President  of  the  Republic  also  came  in 
for  his  share  of  foul  abuse,  owing  to  the  fact  that  by  the 
firmness  and  strength  of  character  displayed  by  him  the 
election  hopes  of  the  Democrat  party  had  been  ruined.  It 
may  well  be  argued  that  his  action  also  saved  the  Republic, 


Recent  Events  213 

since  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  the  Republic  could  have 
lasted  many  months  longer  in  the  rarefied  atmosphere  pro- 
duced by  the  Democrats  in  power.  There  was  a  general 
breath  of  relief  throughout  the  country,  and  by  an  odd 
paradox  this  new  Government  born  of  a  military  movement, 
this  "  dictatorship,"  this  "  tyranny,"  proved  the  most 
moderate  Government  that  Portugal  had  seen  since  the 
Revolution  of  1910.  With  equal  moderation  and  firmness 
one  measure  after  another  was  enacted  in  order  to  bring  about 
the  long-dreamt  reconciliation  of  all  Portuguese.  Churches 
were  restored  to  the  use  of  the  faithful,  officials  arbitrarily 
dismissed  were  restored  to  their  posts,  the  "  White  Ants  " 
were  sent  about  their  business,  their  so-called  "  Committee  of 
Public  Safety  "  abolished,  and  finally  in  April  (1915)  a  general 
amnesty  emptied  the  prisons  and  allowed  the  eleven  exiles 
of  the  1914  amnesty  to  return  to  Portugal. 

O  but,  say  the  Democrats,  it  was  all  so  unconstitutional ! 

Such   a   dictatorship !     Of   course   it    was   unconstitutional. 

The  Constitution  has  been  so  ordered  that  the 

Moderate        Democrats    having    installed    themselves    in 

Consti^tional  Power~ and  theY  had  been  in  Power  in  fact 
Tyrants.  if  not  in  name  since  the  Revolution — could 
never  be  dislodged  by  constitutional  means. 
Their  majority  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  was  secure,  their 
majorities  in  the  town  councils  throughout  the  country,  and 
in  the  officials  responsible  for  returning  the  new  deputies 
equally  secure.  It  became  necessary  to  dissolve  these  bodies, 
by  force  if  they  would  not  go  willingly.  But  the  country 
which  had  suffered  from  four  years  of  constitutional  tyranny 
was  delighted  to  have  a  little  unconstitutional  moderation. 
In  vain  the  Democrats  cried  out  that  it  was  a  dictatorship 
worse  than  the  dictatorship  of  Snr.  Joao  Franco.  If,  answered 
common-sense  opinion,  the  Government  which  empties  the 
prisons,  maintains  order  and  acts  in  every  respect  so  fairly 
and  moderately,  is  a  dictatorship,  then  may  all  succeeding 
Governments  be  tarred  with  the  dictatorial  brush.  Only  so 


214  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

will  the  future  of  the  Republic  and  of  Portugal  be  secure. 
It  is  quite  true  that  the  situation  in  some  respects  resembled 
that  of  Snr.  Joao  Franco's  Government,  and  it  is  a  striking 
and  bitter  comment  on  the  seven  intervening  years  that  to 
find  a  government  as  good  as  that  of  General  Pimenta  de 
Castro  one  has  to  go  back  to  that  of  Snr.  Joao  Franco.  They 
are  like  two  rocks,  and  the  seven  years  between  a  sea  of  slush 
and  molten  fire. 

Scarcely  had  these  words  been  written  when  the  guns  of  the 
fleet  early  on  the  14th  of  May  announced  the  determination  of 
Democrats  and  Carbonarios,  having  found  no 
suPPort  in  public  opinion,  to  overthrow  by 
force  the  Government  of  General  Pimenta  de 
Castro.  For  two  days  Lisbon  was  cut  off  from  the  outside 
world  and  bombarded  from  the  river.  Scores  of  persons 
lost  their  lives,  hundreds  were  wounded.  The  rebels 
triumphed.  General  Pimenta  de  Castro  was  arrested.  The 
Democrat  Press  had  done  its  work  well.  The  sergeants  in 
the  army  had  been  encouraged  to  mutiny  against  their 
superior  officers,  and  the  officers  who  resisted  the  mutiny 
of  the  sailors  were  arrested  or  killed.  The  commander  of  the 
Vasco  da  Gama  was  shot  dead,  the  commander  of  the  Almirante 
Reis  died  some  days  later  of  his  wound.  The  Democrat 
revolutionary  committee  nominated  a  new  government  with 
Snr.  Joao  Chagas  as  Premier.  The  new  Premier  was,  however, 
shot  by  the  Senator  Joao  de  Freitas  when  on  his  way  to 
Lisbon,  and,  although  not  mortally  wounded,  resigned  the 
premiership  some  days  later.  This  was  the  only  contretemps 
in  the  Democrats'  plans.  Otherwise  their  victory  was  com- 
plete, and  they  at  once  set  about  making  the  elections.  In 
certain  States  of  South  America  one  has  heard  of  such  pro- 
ceedings, of  a  party  winning  its  way  to  power  by  means  of 
civil  war.  (The  peaceful  and  exceptionally  well-governed 
country  of  Chile,  ignorantly  confused  with  the  pungent  red 
Chili  pepper  of  the  Portuguese  Republic,  naturally  resented 
any  such  comparison.)  But  even  over  those  States  the  World 


INTERIOR    OF    THE    CHURCH,    BATALHA 


[See  p.  96 


Recent  Events  215 

War  had  thrown  a  steadying  influence.  That  a  party 
in  Portugal  should  take  this  opportunity  to  copy  Mexico 
stamps  that  party  more  effectively  than  would  reams 
of  comment.  It  suffices  to  state  the  fact,  and  the 
Democrat  party  will  always  be  known  as  the  party  which, 
under  cover  of  the  World  War,  raised  itself  to  power  over  the 
dead  bodies  of  its  fellow-countrymen.  The  object  of  the 
Revolution  of  the  14th  of  May,  say  the  Democrats,  was  to  re- 
store the  Constitution.  The  falseness  of  this  argument  will  be 
obvious  to  any  but  the  wilfully  obtuse  when  it  is  remembered 
that  the  general  election  was  fixed  for  the  6th  of  June,  and 
that  they  would  therefore  in  twenty  days  have  had  constitution 
to  their  hearts'  content.  As  a  result  of  their  proceedings,  Dr. 
Arriaga,  the  moderate  President  of  the  Republic,  resigned, 
accompanying  his  resignation  with  a  very  dignified  protest 
addressed  to  Parliament.  The  Democrat  members  of  Parlia- 
ment thereupon  chose  the  Democrat,  Dr.  Theophilo  Braga,  to 
succeed  him  (29th  May,  1915).  General  Pimenta  de  Castro  was 
deported  to  the  Azores  and  dismissed  from  the  Army.  Were 
not  the  injustice  of  it  a  bitter  shame  and  humiliation  to  all 
true  Portuguese,  this  persecution  as  dictators  and  tyrants  of 
two  old  men  who  have  been  Liberals  and  Republicans  for  over 
a  generation,  and  have  done  and  suffered  so  much  for  the 
Republic  (but  not  for  the  Carbonario-Democrat  clique)  would 
be  highly  diverting. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

GREAT   BRITAIN   AND   PORTUGAL 

THE  case  of  Great  Britain  and  Portugal  is  the  only  instance 
in  history  of  an  alliance  extending  over  seven  centuries. 
With  two  peoples  so  fundamentally  different 
su°k  an  aHiance  could  not  prevent  misunder- 
standings, but  it  has  nevertheless  been  a  real 
bond.  It  is  characteristic  of  Portugal's  whole  history  that 
England,  separated  from  her  by  a  great  expanse  of  sea,  should 
have  been  a  nearer  neighbour  than  Spain,  and  although 
it  has  sometimes  become  the  custom  in  Portugal  for  writers 
and  speakers  to  belittle  England  on  every  possible  occasion, 
there  has  never  been  any  real  or  at  least  immediate  thought 
of  giving  up  the  ancient  alliance. 

The  modern  Portuguese  are  full  of  suspicions  with  regard 

to  foreign  politics,   and  are  unwise  enough  to  give  these 

suspicions    expression    in    words.     Recently 

Sporui  a<Ud       the  well-known  Madrid  newspaper,  La  Epoca, 

officially  denied  that  these  suspicacias  por- 

tuguesas   had   any   foundation    in    fact  :     "  For   some   time 

past  there  has  been  talk  in  Portugal  of  the  so-called  '  Spanish 

danger,'  and  the  Press  of  that  country  of  various  political 

shades   frequently   declares   that    intervention    in    Portugal 

meets  with   widespread   favour   in   Spain In   Spain 

no  thought  has  ever  been  given  to  the  political  form  of  the 
Portuguese  Government  further  than  the  wish  for  order 
and  tranquillity  in  the  neighbouring  nation,  since  these 
constitute  the  sure  basis  of  prosperity.  This  we  sincerely 
desire,  as  it  is  desired  by  all  the  powers  that  have 
relations  of  real  friendship  with  Portugal.  .  .  .  Whatever 
the  form  of  Government  in  Portugal  we  repeat  that  the 
Press  and  public  opinion  in  Spain  unfortunately  give  but 

216 


Jftji 


CONVENTO    DE    CHRISTO,    THOMAR 


[See  p.  97 


Great  Britain  and  Portugal  217 

slight  and  disconnected  attention  to  the  affairs  of  that  country, 
and  that  there  is  no  reason  whatever  for  these  suspicions, 
since  we  only  occupy  ourselves  with  Portugal  in  order  to  wish 
her  every  kind  of  happiness."     A  dementi  somewhat  crushing 
in  its  kindness,  invoked  by  the  mania  of  the  Portuguese  to 
ascribe  motives  that  do  not  exist.     The  expression  of  such 
suspicions   can  be  of   no   possible   advantage  to  Portugal. 
The  weakness  of  Portugal's  army  and  of  her  defences,  and  the 
practical  non-existence  of  her  navy  are  perfectly  well  known, 
and  Spain  could  easily  conquer  Portugal  were  she  so  minded. 
The  difficulty  would  be  to  retain  her  conquest.     All  the 
Portuguese  in  their  hatred  of  the  Spaniard  and  their  love  of 
independence  would  unite  to  throw  off  the  yoke  of  Spain, 
even  though  they  have  not  the  sense  to  unite  to  build  up 
Portugal's  prosperity  and  to  make  a  second  imposition  of  the 
Spanish  yoke  impossible.     Spain  would  thus  be  confronted 
with  that  which  defeated  Napoleon — the  resistance  of  a  people, 
and  might  come  out  of  the  conflict  shorn  of  Catalonia  as  well 
as  of  their  new  Lusitanian  province.     The  country  that  would 
benefit  would  be  Portugal,  since  the  Portuguese  would  at  last 
pull  themselves  together  and  pull  together.     But  indeed  the 
idea  of  Spain  permanently  conquering  Portugal  is  as  far 
removed  from  practical  politics  as  the  idea  cherished  by  not 
a  few  Portuguese — of  Portugal  conquering  Spain.     Iberian 
unity  may  be  a  pleasant  dream,  but  when  a  country  has  won 
for  itself  so  definite  and  distinguished  a  position  as  Portugal  in 
history,  literature  and  language,  it  is  too  late  for  it  to  coalesce 
with  another  nation,  unless  as  one  of  a  federation  of  free  States, 
the  Basque  Provinces  and  Asturias,  Portugal  and  Galicia, 
Catalonia,  Aragon,  Valencia,   Andalucia,   Castille.     Nor  can 
one  think  of  Lisbon  as  a  provincial  capital.   Portugal,  modern 
and  progressive,  considers  Spain  very  backward  and  narrow, 
and  rarely  seeks  to  pierce  the  rough  shell  to  the  very  excellent 
kernel  beneath  it.     The  Portuguese  Press,   which  gives  to 
foreign  news  infinitely  greater  and  more  enlightened  attention 
than  does  the  Press  of  Spain,  scarcely  extends  its  interest  to 


218  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

Spain.  And  unfortunately  what  La  Epoca  said  is  true : 
Spain  gives  Portugal  but  a  passing  thought.  Both  countries 
would  be  the  gainers  by  closer  relations  and  a  better  under- 
standing. Portugal  is  far  more  nearly  allied  in  thought  with 
France  than  with  Spain,  and  the  Portuguese  who  takes  the 
Sud-Express  from  Lisbon  to  Paris  journeys  through  an 
unknown  country  till  he  reaches  the  French  frontier. 

Formal  ally  Portugal  possesses  but  one  in  Europe  :  Great 
Britain.  The  Portuguese,  especially  the  Portuguese  Repub- 
licans, have  attacked  this  alliance  vigorously  ; 
Republicans  indeed,  the  Republican  party  increased  and 
British*  prospered  largely  as  a  protest  against  Lord 
Alliance.  Salisbury's  ultimatum.  Even  as  late  as  1910 
a  book  appeared, 1  which  accused  the  English 
of  being  in  their  relations  to  Portugal  hypocritical,  voracious 
and  untrustworthy.  Snr.  Joao  Chagas  in  one  of  his  pam- 
phlets had  charged  the  Kings  of  the  Braganza  dynasty  with 
being  "  vassals  of  England,"  and  this  book  was  the  "  arraign- 
ment of  the  Monarchy  in  Portugal."  The  British  Alliance, 
it  said,  was  essentially  an  alliance  between  dynasties,  and 
to  this  character  owed  its  unbroken  continuity  "  in  spite  of 
all  the  incidents  that  have  arisen  between  the  two  countries 
and  of  the  unequivocal  feeling  of  repulsion  which  separates 
the  two  peoples."  England  has  "  exploited  and  insulted  us." 
But,  asks  the  writer,  "  does  the  protection  of  England  at  least 
shelter  us  from  other  countries  ?  "  and  his  answer  is  "  Only 
if  it  suits  her  interests.  The  decadence  and  degradation  of 
Portugal  are  due  to  the  august  trinity  of  the  Bragan^as,  the 
Jesuits  and  the  English."  British  policy  towards  Portugal 
has  "  always  been  inspired  by  a  spirit  of  rapine."  The  British 
alliance  has  been  constantly  characterised  by  its  want  of 
sincerity  and  "  a  spirit  absolutely  foreign  to  the  general  inter- 
ests of  the  Portuguese  nation."  And  after  heaping  abuse 
and  insult  the  author  concludes  that,  much  as  Portugal  may 

1  A    Allianfa   Inglesa.     Processo  da  Monarchia  em   Portugal.     For 
Affonso  Ferreira.     Coimbra,    1910. 


Great  Britain  and  Portugal  219 

dislike  the  British  alliance,  "it  is  that  which  suits  Portugal 
more  than  any  other/'  since  Great  Britain  is  the  only  power 
which  can  effectively  support  Portugal  against  the  encroach- 
ment of  Germany  and  the  Congo  Free  State.  They  cannot 
have  their  cake  and  eat  their  cake,  and  if  they  wished  the 
British  alliance  to  continue  why  express  their  hatred  and 
abhorrence  of  it  ?  This  book  was  the  true  expression  of  the 
attitude  of  the  Portuguese  Republicans  towards  England, 
although  Dr.  Bernardino  Machado,  first  Republican  Minister 
for  Foreign  Affairs  and  fifth  Republican  Premier,  who  supplied 
it  with  an  introduction  and  with  a  prefatory  letter,  dated 
20th  May,  1910,  held  no  official  position  when  he  expressed 
cordial  approval  of  its  contents. 

The  Republicans  after  the  Revolution  were  obliged  to 
modify  their  attitude,  but  it  would  have  been  wiser  had  they 
frankly  accepted  the  British  Alliance,  frankly 
witnout  arriere-pensee,  instead  of  exerting 
Penetration,  themselves  to  stand  well  with  Great  Britain 
officially  while  at  the  same  time  indulging  in 
petty  slights  and  insinuations,  and  doing  their  utmost  to 
encourage  German  at  the  expense  of  British  trade  in  Portugal. 
German  exports  to  Portugal  before  the  War,  although  they 
had  not  yet  equalled  the  British,  were  gaining  ground  very 
rapidly  (avance  a  pas  de  geants,  said  M.  Marvaud).  Intellec- 
tually France  held  the  field,  materially  it  might  soon  be  Ger- 
many. The  British  Chamber  of  Commerce  in  Portugal, 
founded  in  1911,  does  good  service  in  the  interests  of  British 
trade.  The  threatened  increase  of  the  already  exorbitant 
Customs  duties  has  had  at  least  the  good  effect  of  bringing 
about  several  commercial  treaties :  between  Portugal  and 
Germany  (1908),  Portugal  and  Great  Britain  (1914),  and  others, 
e.g.,  with  Spain,  are  in  contemplation.  It  was  certainly 
significant  and,  partly,  the  natural  outcome  of  the  commercial 
treaty  of  1908,  that  the  Lisbon  shopkeepers,  the  most  devoted 
of  the  Republic's  supporters,  filled  their  shops  as  never 
before  with  German  wares.  Germany  methodically  set 


220  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

herself  to  undermine  the  British  Alliance  by  peaceful  penetra- 
tion. She  offered  Portuguese  tradesmen  cheaper  (if  less 
lasting)  goods  than  did  Great  Britain,  and  made  great  reduc- 
tions for  large  orders,  and  generally  studied  and  consulted 
the  needs  and  the  character  of  her  Portuguese  customers. 
Her  advances  were  so  well  received  as  to  give  a  misleading 
impression.  A  German  observer,  Dr.  Gustav  Diercks,  for 
instance,  writing  in  1911,  guilelessly  remarked  that  Germans 
were  perhaps  of  all  foreigners,  the  most  agreeable  to  the 
Portuguese  at  the  present  time,  "  because  they  have  nothing 
to  fear  from  them,  and  have  learnt  to  know  them  merely  as 
pleasant  business  men,  whose  aim  is  not  the  systematic 
exploitation  of  Portugal."  For  the  great  majority  of  Portu- 
guese, of  course,  tradition  counts  for  less  than  nothing ;  and 
the  old  Portuguese  families,  with  which  tradition  counts  for 
much,  often  have  old  ties  of  family  or  religion  connecting 
them  with  Germany  or  Austria. 

The  chief  evil  in  Portugal  has  been  the  imagination  of  evil, 

the  fear  of  disease  doing  much  to  encourage  or  aggravate  the 

disease.     The  suspicions  of  conspiracy  were 

andUDistrust  more  serious  than  the  actual  conspiracies, 
the  continual  charges  of  political  corruption 
are  a  powerful  incentive  to  political  corruption.  The  nagging 
accusations  against  Spain  at  the  time  of  the  Royalist  incursions 
might  have  tempted  that  country  to  help  the  Royalists  in 
earnest.  The  ridicule  and  abuse  heaped  in  an  underhand  way 
on  Great  Britain  might  have  induced  a  Power  without  scruples 
and  without  a  sense  of  honour  to  make  serious  use  of  its  brute 
force.  It  would,  of  course,  be  quite  as  easy  for  Great  Britain 
to  pocket  the  entire  colonial  empire  of  Portugal  as  it  was  for 
Germany  to  invade  Belgium.  But  even  the  most  suspicious 
and  cantankerous  Portuguese  trusts  Great  Britain's  honour 
and  moderation;  and  if  the  Republicans  have  sometimes 
affected  to  regard  Great  Britain  as  a  gorged  beast  of  prey, 
they  trust  and  love  Germany  much  as  one  may  love  and  trust 
a  tiger  ready  to  spring. 


Great  Britain  and  Portugal  221 

For  those  to  whom  history  and  tradition  have  any  meaning, 

the  ancient  alliance  between  Great  Britain  and  Portugal  and 

the  fact  that  under  many  diverse  conditions 

?ortuh  esed  Englisnmen  and  Portuguese  have  fought  side 
in  the  Twelfth  by  s^e>  wiH  always  establish  at  least  a  basis 
Century.  of  friendliness  between  the  two  countries. 
Before  Portugal  was  Portugal,  Portuguese 
and  English  fought  in  a  common  undertaking,  the  conquest 
of  Lisbon  from  the  Moors  in  1 147.  In  this  difficult  enterprise 
English  crusaders  played  a  very  important  part,  and  an 
account  of  it  was  written,  in  Latin,  by  an  Englishman.  A 
treaty  between  Portugal  and  England,  or  at  least  between 
Portuguese  and  English  merchants,  followed  not  long  after- 
wards, for  in  1308  when  the  treaty  was  formally  renewed 
by  the  Kings  of  England  and  Portugal,  King  Edward  wrote 
to  King  Diniz  of  "  the  treaty  of  love  and  union  that  has 
hitherto  existed  between  your  merchants  (mercatores)  and 
ours." 

It  was,  however,  in  the  fourteenth  century  that  the  old 

treaty  between  the  countries  became  a  definite  and  strong 

alliance.     Portugal  was  in  need  of  a  foreign 

Al  ubarrota  ^^  against  her  neighbour  Castille,  and  when 
old  John  of  Gaunt,  time-honoured  Lancaster, 
laid  claim  to  the  throne  of  Castille,  a  further  tightening  of  the 
relations  between  England  and  Portugal  indicated  itself  as 
the  obvious  policy.  A  treaty  between  John  of  Gaunt  and 
King  Ferdinand  of  Portugal  was  drawn  up  at  Braga  in  1372. 
It  is  true  that  eight  months  later  Ferdinand  signed  a  treaty 
of  peace  with  King  Henry  II  of  Castille  against  the  Duke  of 
Lancaster  and  the  King  of  England,  but  England  continued 
to  have  many  friends  and  partisans  at  the  Portuguese  Court, 
and  eight  years  later,  when  Portugal  was  again  at  war  with 
Spain,  an  English  fleet  with  three  thousand  soldiers  comman- 
ded by  the  Earl  of  Cambridge  (Cambris  and  Cdbrix  in  the  old 
Portuguese  chronicles)  appeared  in  the  Tagus  to  the  assistance 
of  Portugal.  Unhappily  the  English  soldiers  incurred  the 


222  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

hatred  of  the  inhabitants  by  their  pillaging  and  lawless  behav- 
iour, as  if  they  were  in  a  hostile  country.  They  remained  in 
Portugal  till  1383  when  a  fresh  treaty  between  the  Kings  of 
Castille  and  Portugal  turned  the  tables  on  them,  and  the 
King  of  Castille  blandly  provided  ships  to  convey  them  back 
to  England.  However  that  might  be,  King  Ferdinand's 
successor,  the  Infante  Joao,  Master  of  Aviz,  when  he  laid  claim 
to  the  crown  of  Portugal,  was  glad  enough  to  be  able  to  count 
on  the  support  of  England,  and  the  prosperity  of  his  reign 
certainly  owed  something  to  English  influence.  English 
soldiers  fought  side  by  side  with  the  Portuguese  in  the  victory 
of  Aljubarrota  in  1385,  and  the  great  Nun'  Alvares  evidently 
learnt  from  English  soldiers  the  best  way  of  making  his  infantry 
effective  against  cavalry.  At  Aljubarrota,  as  at  Crecy  and 
Agincourt,  the  infantry  stood  firm  in  close  formation  against 
vastly  superior  numbers,  and  all  the  efforts  of  the  cavalry 
were  as  powerless  to  break  them  as  were  the  French  charges 
at  Waterloo.  The  influence  of  the  Earl  of  Cambridge  and  the 
other  English  commanders  was  great  in  Portugal,  and  when 
Joao  I  married  an  English  princess  in  1387,  English  ascendancy 
became  supreme  at  the  Portuguese  Court.  There  are  many 
indications  to  show  how  wide  that  influence  extended.  The 
dignity  of  Constable  and  Marshal  were  introduced  directly 
from  England ;  Nun'  Alvares,  the  first  Constable,  was  delibe- 
rately a  second  Galahad ;  the  chivalry  of  the  Round  Table 
became  the  incentive  and  fashion  of  the  Portuguese  courtiers 
and  nobles  ;  the  royal  princes  were  given  an  English  education 
by  their  English  mother. 

To    her   Portugal    owes    a   great    debt.     The   Portuguese 

chronicles  admit  that  her  children  received  a  more  careful 

education  than  was  habitual  at  the  Courts 

Philf  eia         °*  t^ie  Penmsula'  an(^  one  °f  these  children  was 

Prince  Henry  the  Navigator,  real  founder  of 

Portugal's   glory   in  the  fifteenth   and   sixteenth   centuries. 

The  treaty  of  1308  between  Portugal  and  England  had  been 

constantly  renewed ;  in   1353,    1372,  and  1380.     After  King 


Great  Britain  and  Portugal  223 

Joao  I's  accession  it  was  confirmed  in  1386  and  1404.  The 
fishermen  and  traders  of  Portugal,  as  indeed  of  the  whole 
coast  as  far  as  Bayonne,  had  much  in  common  both  in  cha- 
racter and  interests  with  the  English,  and  even  if  close  rela- 
tions had  not  existed  between  the  Courts  of  Portugal  and 
England  it  is  probable  that  some  such  treaty  would  have  been 
formed  as  existed  between  Basque  fishermen  and  King 
Edward  II  of  England. 

In  1470  these  friendly  relations  were  disturbed.     Portuguese 

ships  were  plundered  by  English  pirates.     But  actual  war  was 

avoided,  and  the  treaty  signed  in  1472  lasted 

Alliance        unbroken  between  Portugal  and  England  for 
Broken  Off  °  T     .,  „  rt      *?        ~ 

and  Renewed,  the  next  hundred  years.  In  1580,  when  Por- 
tugal came  under  Spanish  sway,  her  alliance 
with  England  naturally  fell  to  the  ground,  and  it  was  actually 
in  the  harbour  of  the  Tagus  that  was  equipped  the  greater 
part  of  the  Invincible  Armada  of  1588.  Portugal,  which 
had  sometimes  found  England's  friendship  unpleasant,  when 
English  soldiers  were  quartered  for  long  periods  in  Portugal, 
and,  as  says  an  old  chronicle,  would  kill  an  ox  in  order  to  eat 
its  tongue,  now  experienced  the  very  much  more  unpleasant 
consequences  of  the  cessation  of  that  friendship.  All  her 
coasts  and  all  her  colonies  were  at  the  mercy  of  her  former 
ally's  attacks.  As  soon  as  the  yoke  of  Spain  was  thrown  off 
the  Duke  of  Bragan$a  as  Joao  IV  sent  ambassadors  to  England 
to  conclude  peace.  A  treaty  was  signed  in  January,  1643, 
by  which  many  mutual  privileges,  both  of  trade  and 
individuals,  were  recognised.  Among  other  privileges  of 
British  subjects  in  Portugal,  it  was  agreed  that  British  Consuls 
need  not  belong  to  the  Roman  Catholic  religion.  Generally 
the  treaty  increased  in  a  high  degree  the  facilities  of  trade 
and  commerce  between  the  two  countries.  But  when  Crom- 
well came  to  the  throne  the  relations  between  England  and 
Portugal  were  not  easy,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they  had  the 
same  enemies.  In  1650,  Prince  Rupert  and  his  brother 
Maurice  took  refuge  in  Portugal,  and  King  Joao  IV  refused  to 


224  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

accede  to  Cromwell's  demand  that  they  should  be  surrendered. 
Two  years  later,  however,  when  both  Portugal  and  England 
were  at  war  with  the  Dutch,  the  old  friendship  was  resumed. 
The  Conde  de  Penaguiao  was  sent  on  a  special  mission  to 
England,  and  in  July,  1654,  the  treaty  of  1642  was  revised  and 
renewed.  Among  other  articles  it  stipulated  that  the  English 
should  have  certain  rights  of  trading  with  the  Portuguese 
possessions  in  the  East,  and  that  in  Portugal  no  British  subject 
might  be  arrested  without  a  special  warrant. 

The  Restoration  in  England  and  the  marriage  of  Charles  II 

with  Catharina,  daughter  of  King  Joao  IV,  drew  the  bond 

between  Portugal  and  England  still  closer. 

Ameixial  ^n  ^^  an  ^-nSusn  ^rce  was  sent  to  Portugal 
to  assist  her  in  her  war  against  Spain,  and 
in  the  following  year  took  part  in  the  victory  over  Don  John 
of  Austria  at  Ameixial.  The  Spanish  losses  in  dead,  wounded, 
and  prisoners  are  said  to  have  numbered  10,000  out  of  a  total 
army  of  16,000.  The  Portuguese  losses  are  given  as  1,500 
dead  and  wounded,  and  those  of  their  allies,  the  French  and 
the  English,  as  300  and  50  respectively.  Once  more,  as  at 
Aljubarrota  and  so  many  other  fights,  the  English  had  con- 
tributed in  some  measure  to  secure  Portugal's  independence. 
Charles  II  also  helped  to  bring  about  the  peace  between 
Spain  and  Portugal,  which  was  signed  after  many  negotiations 
and  difficulties  in  1668.  The  English  ambassadors  both  at 
Madrid  and  Lisbon  worked  persistently  for  peace,  and  the 
two  neighbouring  countries,  which  should  never  have  been 
at  war,  were  finally  induced  to  accept  it. 

A  new  treaty  between  England  and  Portugal  had  been 
signed  seven  years  earlier  in  1661,  by  which  all  the  older 
treaties    were    confirmed.     Portugal    ceded 
Queen  ^        Tangiers  to  Great  Britain,  as  well  as  Bombay, 
aC  *       an(i  two  million  cruzados  as  dowry  of  the 


Princess  Catharine.  Great  Britain  promised 
to  protect  Portugal  by  land  and  sea,  with  cavalry,  infantry, 
and  ten  of  her  best  warships  whenever  Portugal  might  be 


Great  Britain  and  Portugal  225 

attacked.  Great  Britain,  moreover,  undertook  never  to 
form  a  treaty  with  Spain  which  might  be  in  any  way  prejudi- 
cial to  Portuguese  interests,  never  to  give  back  Dunkirk  or 
Jamaica  to  Spain,  and  to  support  the  Portuguese  in  India 
against  the  Dutch  unless  the  latter  made  peace  with  Portugal. 
At  first  sight  the  actual  advantages  of  this  treaty  are  all  on  the 
side  of  Great  Britain,  those  of  Portugal  being  chiefly  hypo- 
thetical, but  Portugal  had  received  in  the  past  proofs  of  support 
from  England  so  solid  that  the  promise  of  British  support  in 
the  future  was  considered  as  anything  but  nugatory.  After 
the  Revolution  in  England  William  of  Orange  informed  the 
King  of  Portugal  of  his  intention  to  abide  by  the  existing 
treaties,  and  accordingly  King  Pedro  II  gave  no  help  to  the 
exiled  Stuarts,  however  much  they  might  have  his  sympathy. 
In  the  war  of  the  Spanish  Succession  Portugal  at  first  main- 
tained neutrality  in  spite  of  the  offer  of  ships  and  men  made 
to  her  by  the  Allies  if  she  declared  war  against 

War  of  the      Spain,  and  the  promise  that  whatever  territory 

Spanish  . 

Succession.      srie  won  from  Spam  should  be  guaranteed 

to  her  after  the  war  ended.  Although  Por- 
tugal's duty  and  interests  alike  seemed  to  require  that  she 
should  join  the  alliance  against  Spain  without  hesitation,  it 
was  not  till  May,  1703,  that  she  finally  threw  in  her  lot  with 
them.  The  alliance  between  Great  Britain  and  Portugal 
has  more  than  once  shown  a  strange  capacity  to  simmer 
down  into  neutrality  at  the  very  moment  when  it  might  have 
been  expected  to  be  most  active.  Yet  war  between  Great 
Britain  and  another  Power  was  not  so  remote  a  contingency 
that  Portugal's  attitude  and  obligations  might  not  have  been 
clearly  defined  beforehand.  Of  the  force  of  28,000  men  which 
Portugal  now  engaged  to  bring  into  the  field,  nearly  a  half, 
13,000,  were  to  be  maintained  by  the  Allies. 

The  Methuen  commercial   treaty  between  Great   Britain 

and  Portugal  was  signed  in  the  same  year  (27th  December, 

1703).     On  the  strength  of  this  treaty,  Great  Britain  has  been 

accused,  and  is  still  sometimes  accused,  of  deliberately  planning 

15— (2404) 


226  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

Portugal's  ruin,  as  if  Great  Britain  were  to  blame  because  her 
woollen  goods  were  superior  to  those  of  Portuguese  manu- 
facture, or  because  the  Portuguese,  in  a  short- 
si§hted  desire  for  immediate  profits,  planted 
more  than  a  due  proportion  of  their  land  with 
vines,  till  wine  became  commoner  than  water,  while  agricul- 
ture and  pasture  lands  were  neglected.  But  it  is  certain  that 
the  neglect  and  lack  of  enterprise  of  the  Portuguese  allowed 
a  great  part  of  Portuguese  trade  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
English. 

The  Marquez  de  Pombal,  who  lived  in  England  as  Portu- 
guese Ambassador  for  six  years,  was  able  to  compare  England's 
active  business  methods  with  the  lazy  laisser- 
Pombal's       alter  of  the  Portuguese.     England,  he  said, 
towards         has  become  master  of  the  whole  of  Portugal's 
England.        trade.    But  however  much  he  might  deplore 
and  seek  to  remedy  this  fact,  he  recognised 
that  the  British  alliance  must  be  the  basis  of  all  Portugal's 
foreign  policy.     England  and  Portugal,  he  said,  were  like 
man  and  wife :    they  might  quarrel,  but,  if  a  third  party 
interfered,  they  would  unite  against  the  common  foe. 

In  1805  the  threats  of  Napoleon  induced  Portugal  to  declare 

war  formally  against  England  and  to  close  her  harbours  to 

British  ships.     Three  hundred  English  fami- 

PenTnsular       lies'  settled  in  busmess  in  Portugal,  left  the 
War.  country.     Great  Britain  was  willing  to  accept 

these  measures  as  the  results  of  a  necessity 
that  knew  no  law,  and  although  war  was  formally  declared, 
the  British  Ambassador,  Lord  Strangford,  remained  at 
Lisbon.  But  when  Portugal  went  still  further,  and  at  the 
bidding  of  France  confiscated  the  property  of  those  English 
families  that  had  remained,  Lord  Strangford  demanded  his 
passports,  and  an  English  fleet  blockaded  the  mouth  of  the 
Tagus.  Before  the  British  Ambassador  could  leave  the  coun- 
try Junot  had  approached  rapidly  nearer  to  Lisbon.  When 
Strangford  received  the  Moniteur  in  which  it  was  announced 


Great  Britain  and  Portugal  227 

that  "  the  House  of  Braganza  has  ceased  to  reign,"  he  was 
able  to  induce  the  Prince  Regent  to  sail  for  Brazil.  Portugal's 
lot  was  now  once  more  closely  united  with  that  of  Great 
Britain.  The  Peninsular  War,  in  which  Portuguese  and 
English  troops  fought  side  by  side  on  many  a  field,  could  not 
fail  to  strengthen  the  old  alliance,  however  much  individual 
differences  of  character  might  come  to  the  surface. 

Yet,  after  seven  centuries  of  constant  intercourse  between 
English  and  Portuguese,  it  is  indeed  astonishing  that  in 
intellectual  and  social  relations  they  should 
have  remained  almost  strangers.  The  blame 
for  this  disappointing  fact  may  be  equally 
apportioned  between  them.  Certainly  England  cannot  be 
acquitted  of  a  certain  narrowness  and  angularity — whether  it 
be  the  result  of  stupidity  or  pride — which  has  driven  Portugal, 
intellectually,  into  the  hands  of  France  or  Germany.  It  is 
to  be  regretted,  in  this  respect,  that  the  Commercial  Treaty 
between  Portugal  and  Great  Britain  negotiated  by  Sir  Arthur 
Hardinge  and  Mr.  Lancelot  Carnegie,  and  signed  in  1914, 
should  not  have  included  a  clause  by  which  English  books 
might  share  the  favourable  treatment  as  regards  Customs 
duties  which  is  given  to  French  books.  A  knowledge  of 
English  literature  would  do  much  to  increase  the  regard  or 
diminish  the  dislike  of  the  Portuguese  towards  England. 
Latin  nations  give  more  importance  to  literature  than  is 
perhaps  attributed  to  it  in  England,  and  the  fact  that  Portu- 
guese literature  and  Portuguese  history  meet  with  little 
sympathy  or  study  in  England  undoubtedly  has  its  effect  in 
Portugal  when  it  is  compared  with  the  attitude  of  Germany. 
The  difference  leaps  to  the  eyes  of  all  educated  persons  in 
Portugal,  and  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  in  Portugal  the 
uneducated  people — apart  from  the  trained  demagogues' 
bands  in  the  cities — has  no  part  or  parcel  in  the  affairs  of  the 
nation. 

If  you  ask  what  is  the  best  history  of  Portugal,  the  answer 
is  that  of  Heinrich  Schaefer,  a  German  ;    there  is  not  even 


228  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

an  English  translation  of  it,  although  a  considerable  portion 
of  it  is  English  history.  English  readers  must  read  this  in 

German  or  in  the  French  translation.  If  you 
Asccndanc  mQuire  f°r  the  best  history  of  Portuguese 

literature,  if  you  wish  to  consult  important 
works  on  the  Portuguese  language,  if  you  wish  to  read  all  the 
works  of  Portugal's  chief  poet  in  a  translation,  the  language 
necessary  for  your  purpose  is  still  not  English,  but  German. 
It  is  not  a  creditable  fact,  for  England,  and  it  may  be  that  one 
result  of  the  World  War  will  be  to  broaden  England's  outlook  : 
if  so,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  she  will,  especially,  bestow  more 
attention  on  the  life  and  character,  literature,  and  history 
of  the  oldest  of  her  allies. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

PORTUGAL  OF  THE   FUTURE 

To  find  Portuguese  finances  in  a  satisfactory,  above  all,  in  a 
natural,  condition,  it  is  perhaps  necessary  to  go  back  to  the 
days  of  King  Diniz,  who,  after  spending 
much  on  the  development  of  the  country, 
left  a  full  treasury  at  his  death  in  1325.  The 
succeeding  kings  maintained  this  prosperity,  but  at  the  end 
of  the  fifteenth  and  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  centuries  the 
great  change  came  which  has  made  Portuguese  finance  the 
most  artificial  in  Europe.  Precious  stones  and  metals  and 
spices  from  the  East  took  the  place  of  money  derived  from 
patient  industry  and  the  toil  of  men's  hands.  Agriculture, 
which  has  always  been  Portugal's  principal  industry,  was 
neglected,  and  the  fields  lay  desolate.  The  peasants  willingly 
in  a  spirit  of  adventure,  or  eager  to  exchange  assured  misery 
for  an  uncertainty,  or  forcibly  enlisted,  were  shipped  off  to  the 
Indies.  The  great  majority  of  them  never  saw  Portugal 
again  :  disease,  battle,  and  shipwreck  having  done  their  work 
well.  The  eyes  of  all  in  the  country  became  fastened  upon 
Lisbon,  but  the  wealth  arriving  at  Lisbon  rarely  filtered  into 
the  provinces  ;  far  more  frequently  it  was  employed  in  pur- 
chasing articles  of  luxury  from  abroad.  It  is  the  situation  of 
the  present  day,  Lisbon  importing  motor-cars  by  the  score 
and  innumerable  luxuries,  while  the  country  remains  unde- 
veloped and  poverty-stricken.  After  the  gold  from  India 
came  the  discovery  of  gold  in  Brazil,  a  later  possession  of 
Portugal,  and  even  to-day,  when  Brazil  is  a  separate  State, 
the  money  coming  to  Portugal  from  rich  Portuguese  brazileiros 
props  up  a  system  which,  on  the  failure  of  this  last  resource, 
is  in  danger  of  falling  with  a  crash,  as  indeed  it  fell  in  1892. 
The  Customs  duties  constitute  about  a  third  of  the  entire 

229 


230  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

revenue,  and  the  system  of  excessive  protection  enables 
Ministers  of  Finance  to  live  from  year  to  year,  but  it  may  be 
described  as  a  system  which  fills  the  Ex- 
de  AlfandLa  cnecluer  and  ruins  the  country.  It  is  main- 
tained for  the  simple  reason  that  it  does  enable 
the  Government  to  avoid  bankruptcy,  and  it  is  excused  as 
encouraging  Portuguese  industries.  But  in  a  country  almost 
exclusively  agricultural  as  is  Portugal,  protection  should  be 
of  a  very  moderate  kind.  The  most  extreme  protection  cannot 
make  Portuguese  industries  flourish  and  it  seriously  injures 
agriculture.  Because  agricultural  machines  and  other  imple- 
ments imported  from  abroad  are  comparatively  lightly  taxed 
(from  5  to  60  reis  per  kilo),  it  is  imagined  that  agriculture 
does  not  suffer  from  a  system  which  sends  up  the  general  cost 
of  living  to  an  abnormal  degree !  It  may  be  of  interest  to 
give  some  examples  of  the  Customs  tariff.  Motor-cars  are 
taxed  120,000  reis  (20  reis  roughly  =  one  penny),  motor 
cycles  50,000,  pianos  50,000,  silk  articles  up  to  13,500  per  kilo, 
woollen  articles  up  to  3,500  per  kilo,  cotton  articles  up  to 
1,600  per  kilo,  a  kilo  of  tobacco  4,500,  men's  hats  900  each, 
a  kilo  of  biscuits  120,  of  sugar  120  and  145,  of  tea  1,000, 
chocolate  200,  jam  200,  honey  35,  cheese  300,  butter  250. 
Horses  pay  from  24,500  to  32,500  each,  donkeys  2,500,  mules 
14,500,  goats  500,  sheep  500,  pigs  3,600,  cows  7,500.  Dynamite 
is  taxed  270  per  kilo,  books — more  dangerous  and  less  in  de- 
mand than  dynamite — if  Portuguese  and  bound,  900  per  kilo, 
broche4QQ.  Foreign  books  pay  from  100  to  510  per  kilo.  Books, 
however,  coming  from  France,  Belgium,  or  Brazil,  are  free  (the 
result  being  that  the  Lisbon  bookshops  are  flooded  with  French 
books).  Wrought  gold  pays  120,000  per  kilo,  wrought  silver 
35,000  per  kilo.  Gold  and  silver  coins,  says  the  pauta  published 
by  the  Annuario  Commercial  de  Portugal,  are  free  ;  and  one  has 
to  be  humbly  grateful  for  such  generosity.  These  Customs 
duties  provide  about  one-third  of  the  nation's  revenue.  As  to 
the  expenditure  it  will  be  found  that  a  large  proportion  of  it 
never  goes  further  than  Lisbon.  When  the  sums  due  for  the 


Portugal  of  the  Future  231 

service  of  the  external  and  internal  debts  are  subtracted,  the 
various  departments  absorb  the  rest,  that  is,  to  a  great  extent, 
the  officials  of  the  various  departments  and  the  officers  of  the 
army  and  navy  retired  or  on  active  service. 

The  rates  of  exchange,  moreover,  fluctuate  more  than  in  any 

other  country,  the  value  of  the  pound  sterling  varying  from 

4,800  reis  to  7,000  or  8,000  reis.     And  since 

Conditions  not  only  articles  of  hmiry  but  a  large  quantity 
of  wheat  is  imported  annually,  this  naturally 
has  the  most  serious  effect  on  the  life  of  the  whole  country. 
The  imports  of  Portugal  stand  to  her  exports  in  the  proportion 
of  at  least  4  to  3.  The  whole  value  of  the  imports  is  more 
than  double  that  of  the  exports,  but  about  a  third  of  the 
former  are  re-exported  from  Lisbon.  The  Customs  (A  Ifandega) 
duties  yielded,  in  round  figures,  20,000  contos  in  1911,  21,000 
contos  in  1912,  and  23,000  contos  in  1913.  The  Monarchy, 
as  now  the  Republic,  has  been  powerless  under  a  system  of 
artificial  finance  which  has  never  borne  a  close  relation  to  the 
resources  of  the  country,  but  lived  first  on  spices  from  the 
colonies,  then  on  gold  from  Brazil,  then  on  foreign  loans, 
till  the  bankruptcy  of  1892  rendered  even  these  impossible, 
since  when  it  has  been  compelled  to  live  on  issues  of  paper 
money  and  increase  of  the  floating  debt.  The  Portuguese 
Treasury  during  centuries  has  closely  resembled  Gil  Vicente's 
poor  nobleman,  who  with  a  small  and  dwindling  income, 
contracted  heavy  debts  and  maintained  great  estate.  It  was 
alleged  that  the  floating  debt  had  sunk  to  81,000  contos  a  few 
months  after  the  Revolution  of  October,  1910,  but  subsequent 
figures  disproved  the  optimism  of  January,  1911,  and  in 
January,  1914,  the  floating  debt  which  stood  at  82,000  contos 
in  September,  1910,  had  advanced  to  89,851  contos. 

During  his  year  of  office  in  1913  as  Premier  and  Finance 
Minister,  Dr.  Affonso  Costa's  untiring  efforts  were  directed 
towards  abolishing  the  annual  deficit.  This  may  seem  to  many 
the  very  first  condition  of  an  improvement  in  the  national 
finances,  and  the  object  was  theoretically  excellent.  But  it 


232  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

may  be  attained  by  illegitimate  means,  as  unfair  taxation  or 

by  postponing  necessary  payments,    and  in   that   case    the 

deficit  will  only  be  abolished  at  the  expense 

Dr.  Costa's      of  a  fgj-  greater  deficit  in  a  few  years.     It  has 

Financial  £  ,     . 

Methods.  always  been  one  of  the  anomalies  of  Portu- 
guese finance  that  it  is  possible  to  have  a 
full  exchequer  in  a  ruined  country.  To  take  but  one  instance, 
if  the  crops  in  Portugal  fail  a  huge  additional  amount  of 
wheat  must  be  imported,  and  while  the  peasant  is  starving  the 
Exchequer  rakes  in  a  surplus  in  Customs  duties.  Dr.  Costa's 
narrow  methods — his  great  bid  for  popularity  and  a  surplus — 
really  increased  the  artificial  character  of  Portuguese  finance, 
and  its  tendency  to  live  from  hand  to  mouth  and  let  the  future 
take  care  of  itself.  It  was  not  only  that  he  made  of  finance 
a  party  catchword  and  a  source  of  class-hatred,  adopting 
Almeida  Garrett's  extraordinary  maxim  that  one  rich  man 
means  hundreds  of  poor  men  (Viagens  na  minha  terra  :  "  Coda 
homen  rico,  abastado,  custa  centos  de  infelizes,  de  miserareis  "), 
but  that  he  bent  all  his  ability  or  energy  to  the  satisfaction 
of  a  personal  vanity — to  be  able  to  set  it  on  record  that  his 
year  was  the  year  of  no  deficit  and — apres  lui  le  deluge.  The 
object  should  have  been  rather  to  encourage  wealth  in  Portu- 
gal, even  at  a  temporary  loss  to  the  Exchequer,  to  give  landed 
proprietors  every  incentive  to  dwell  on  and  develop  their 
estates  rather  than  to  drive  them  out  of  the  country  by  a  new 
property  tax,  by  which  they  sometimes  paid,  in  this  and  other 
contributions,  over  a  fourth  of  their  income.  This  tax 
(contribuicdo  predial)  was  successful  in  immediately  raising 
revenue,  but  unfortunately  the  annual  expenditure  has  also 
increased.  Dr.  Costa  estimated  it  at  78,000  contos  for  1914-15, 
but  in  1909-10  it  stood  at  74,000.  Expenses  connected  with 
the  War  in  1914  and  1915  have  added  at  least  another  40,000 
contos,  so  that  Portuguese  finances  will  now  be  hampered 
for  many  a  year. 

The  whole  ambition  of  Portuguese  Finance  Ministers  is  to 
make  a  huge  foreign  loan,  which  has  been  impossible  of  late 


ii#'T-l\      .. 


Portugal  of  the  Future  233 

years,  but  which  the  altered  circumstances  may  now  enable 
them  to  achieve.  The  total  of  the  Public  Debt  is  in  round 
figures,  900,000  contos,  the  annual  interest  over 
20>000  contos,  say  twelve  shillings  per  inhabi- 
tant. Since  the  conversion  of  the  external 
debt  in  1892  the  interest  has  been  faithfully  paid.  It  is 
guaranteed  by  the  Customs  duties.  Whatever  improvement 
future  years  may  bring  to  the  Portuguese  finances  will  not 
come  at  a  bound  (reduction  in  the  deficit  in  five  days  of  5,000 
contos,  a  surplus  of  hundreds,  a  surplus  of  thousands,  the 
salvation  of  the  country)  but  must  be  very  gradual,  questions 
of  finance  never  being  questions  of  the  moment  only  but 
reacting  far  into  the  future.  It  will  be  the  work  of  scientific 
financiers,  never  of  demagogues.  He  would  be  a  very 
unreasonable  critic,  or  a  very  ignorant  party  politician, 
who  should  expect  the  Republic  to  transform  the  financial 
situation  inherited  from  the  Monarchy  from  a  desert 
into  a  garden  of  roses  at  the  mere  wave  of  a  magic  wand. 
What  is  expected  of  any  Government  worthy  of  the  name  is 
that  it  should  be  a  firm  and  stable  Government,  that  it  should 
maintain  order,  promote  private  initiative  and  wealth,  and 
inspire  confidence  by  giving  the  country  not  doses  of  mysti- 
fication and  paper  money,  but  a  straightforward  account  of 
the  state  of  its  finances. 

The  country  needs  to  be  enlightened,  too,  as  to  the  advis- 
ability or  the  reverse  of  parting  with  some  of  her  colonies. 
With  an  area  in  Europe  of  35,490  square  miles, 
Cohmtes         Portugal  owns  more  than  800,000.     It  is  an 
alarming  proportion,  although  of  course  that 
of  the  empires  of  Belgium,  Holland  and  Great  Britain  are  even 
greater.     But  the  Portuguese  do  not  seem  to  possess  the 
energy  and  administrative  ability  needful  to  leaven  the  whole 
lump  of  their  possessions,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they  adapt 
themselves  readily  to  new  conditions  and  to    extremes  of 
climate,  and  are  enterprising  in  ideas.    "  As  navigators  and  not 
as  conquerors,  wrote  Oliveira  Martins  "  (Historia  de  Portugal), 


234  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

"  we  unveiled  all  the  secrets  of  the  seas,  but  our  empire 
in  the  East  was  a  disaster  both  for  the  East  and  for  us."  Many 
of  the  higher  nobility — all  that  was  best  in  Portugal — were  too 
proud  to  engage  in  trade  in  the  New  World.  Others  went  out  in 
order  to  amass  wealth  by  whatever  means  in  the  shortest 
possible  time.  The  colonies  were  mercilessly  exploited  by 
the  mother  country.  A  close  system  of  protection  prevented 
foreign  nations  from  trading  with  the  Portuguese  colonies, 
and  the  Portuguese  themselves  did  little  or  nothing  for  the 
development  of  their  resources.  The  unsound  administra- 
tion in  Portugal  itself  became  more  so  in  remote  Madeira 
and  most  so  in  the  distant  colonies,  where  more  recently  the 
Governors  have  been  fettered  by  the  strict  centralisation  of 
power  in  Lisbon  and  driven  to  despair  by  the  constant  changes 
of  Government,  which  seem  to  make  any  continuous  policy 
impossible.  As  to  the  condition  of  the  colonies  under  the 
Republic  a  Republican  newspaper — 0  Seculo — has  described 
it  as  a  state  of  anarchy,  "  an  ocean  of  disorder  "  (27th  Feb- 
ruary, 1912).  "  The  Portuguese  Parliament  has  given  the 
natives  not  justice  nor  good  administration,  but — the  right 
to  vote,  and  this  in  order  that  it  may  be  possible  to  say 
grandiloquently  that  all  Portuguese,  white  or  black,  have 
equal  rights  in  the  eyes  of  the  law :  To  the  native  of  Africa 
or  Timor,  totally  ignorant  of  what  is  a  Parliament  or  politics, 
to  the  native  from  whom  we  have  torn  his  land,  whom  we 
have  exploited  for  centuries,  to  this  native  without  education 
or  hospitals  or  schools  or  roads,  to  whom  we  give  nothing,  for 
whom  we  do  nothing,  and  from  whom  we  derive  no  small 
profit  in  the  plantations  of  Sao  Thome  and  the  mines  of  the 
Rand  and  in  so  many  other  ways,  Parliament  has  granted 
not  a  better  justice  or  more  protection  or  a  good  administra- 
tion adequate  to  his  present  state,  but  the  right  to  vote  " 
(0  Seculo,  20th  November,  1912).  The  same  newspaper 
declared  in  a  subsequent  article  that  the  sale  of  any  part  of 
the  colonies  would  be  a  fatal  blow  to  Portuguese  nationality, 
and  a  public  confession  of  insolvency  "  so  ardently  desired  by 


Portugal  of  the  Future  235 

Germany."  The  sale  of  Timor  or  Macao  or  Guinea  would 
only  be  the  thin  end  of  the  wedge.  This  is  the  view  com- 
monly held  in  Portugal.  Yet  Spain,  after  having  looked 
askance  even  at  the  co-operation  of  foreign  capital  in  her 
colonies — as  does  Portugal  now — has  learnt  to  regret  bitterly 
that  she  did  not  sell  Cuba  when  she  had  the  opportunity. 

Exception  has  been  taken  even  to  the  decree  allowing  the 
transport  of  foreign  goods  through  Angola  on  payment  of  a 
moderate  tariff,  and  as  this  decree  will  not 
Angola.  come  into  force  until  customs  houses  have 
been  built  all  along  the  frontier,  many 
Governments  are  likely  to  have  risen  and  fallen  in  Lisbon 
before  it  ceases  to  be  a  dead  letter.  Meanwhile  a 
brisk  smuggling  trade  goes  on  between  Angola  and  the 
Belgian  Congo.  (The  duty  on  cotton  goods  imported  to 
Angola  is  250  reis  per  kilo  white,  500  reis  coloured.  Foreign 
tobacco  pays  from  1,800  to  3,600  reis  per  kilo,  and 
the  duty  on  other  articles  amounts  to  10,  12,  20,  and  25  per 
cent,  of  their  value.  Foreign  imports  to  Portuguese  Congo 
pay  a  smaller  duty,  for  the  great  majority  of  articles  6  per 
cent,  ad  valorem.)  Angola,  with  a  thousand  miles  of  coast, 
is  divided  into  five  districts :  Congo,  Loanda,  Benguella, 
Mossamedes,  and  Lunda,  and  is  occupied  by  5,000  troops,  of 
which  under  2,000  are  Europeans.  The  total  number  of 
Europeans  in  the  colony  is  in  normal  times  only  about  9,000, 
or  2  per  cent,  of  the  entire  population.  The  chief  exports 
are  rubber,  coffee,  wax,  etc.  It  is  a  fertile  land,  capable  of 
immense  production  when  the  country  can  be  opened  up  and 
exploited.  Of  course,  the  required  outlay  for  this  is  enormous, 
and  the  Portuguese  have  not  been  able  to  develop  their  own 
European  territory,  have  not  the  smallest  prospect  of  being 
able  to  develop  Angola — a  country  many  times  the  size  of 
Portugal — not  in  the  twentieth  century.  It  is  sheer  waste 
to  allow  this  country  to  remain  undeveloped  for  want  of  capi- 
tal which,  chiefly  owing  to  the  large  potential  production 
of  rubber,  would  under  capable  administration,  amply  repay 


236  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

itself.  At  present  the  annual  deficit  in  Angola's  budget  varies 
from  800  to  1 ,500  contos,  and  the  colony  is  moreover  burdened 
by  a  heavy  debt.  It  is  one  of  the  most  distressful  colonies 
of  Portugal. 

The  immediate  prospects  of  Mozambique  are  less  distressing, 

and  recently  a  slight  surplus  has  been  attained,  but  here,  too, 

the  Hinterland  is  totally  undeveloped.     Apart 

Mozambique,  from  the  strip  of  territory  along  the  coast 
(1,400  miles  in  length),  says  M.  Marvaud, l 
"  1'autorite  portugaise  ne  se  fait  sentir  aux  indigenes  qu'a 
coups  d'expeditions  militaires."  It  yields,  among  other 
products,  rubber,  cotton  and  sugar,  but  it  depends  largely 
for  prosperity  on  the  traffic  of  the  port  of  Lourenco  Marques. 
This  traffic  has  been  secured  by  the  treaty  of  April,  1909, 
between  Mozambique  and  the  Transvaal,  but  is  envied  by 
other  African  ports,  which  may  succeed  in  depriving  Lourenco 
Marques  of  the  traffic  in  a  few  years  hence,  when  the  treaty 
expires.  Meanwhile  the  natives  of  Mozambique  leave  the 
colony  to  work  in  the  mines  of  the  Rand,  and  Mozambique  thus 
prospers  artificially  and  temporarily,  while  its  own  resources 
are  undeveloped  and  the  means  of  developing  them  decrease. 

Portuguese  Guinea,  with  about  170,000  inhabitants,  yields 
much  the  same  products  as  Mozambique,  but  its  climate  is 
unhealthy.  Much  of  the  trade  has  been  in 

the  hands  of  Germany'  and'  although  the  soil 
is  rich  the  yearly  deficit  which  the  Lisbon 
Government  has  to  meet  for  this  colony  is,  with  that  of  Angola, 
the  principal  reason  why  it  has  been  found  impossible  to  allow 
those  colonies  which  have  a  surplus  to  keep  it  for  their  own  use. 
Thus,  the  Budgets  of  the  islands  of  Sao  Thome  and  Principe 
show  a  yearly  surplus,  but  they  have  not  been  permitted  to 
utilise  it  for  the  construction  of  the  roads  so 

arfd'  Pdnd^e     &reatly  needed  for  their  further  development. 
These  islands  produce  coffee,  rubber,  tobacco, 
ginger,  tea,  but  over  90  per  cent,  of  their  exports  consists  in  cocoa. 
1  Le  Portugal  et  ses  Colonies.     Par  Angel  Marvaud.     Paris,  1912. 


Portugal  of  the  Future  237 

As  there  is  insufficient  native  labour,  they  are  obliged  to 

import  natives  from  Angola  and  elsewhere  to  work  on  the 

plantations.     The  contracts  with  the  natives 

"  Services  ' '     stipula^e  that  they  shall  be  repatriated  after 

a  certain  period,  but  in  practice  they  have 

often  remained  indefinitely  in  a  condition  differing  from  slavery 

only  in  name.     (Slavery,  in  name,  was  abolished  in   1875.) 

The  Lisbon  Government  has  shown  a  sincere  desire  that  the 

services  should  be  duly  repatriated,  but  the  interests  of  the 

planters  have  been  to  obtain  native  workers  where  and  how 

they  could,  and  to  retain  them  permanently. 

Nearer  home  Portugal  possesses  the  colony  of  •  the  Cape 
Verde  Islands,  population   150,000. 1    They  produce  maize, 
coffee,  etc.,  but  surfer  from  drought.     Their 
Budget  hovers  between  a  small  surplus  and 
a  small  deficit. 

Of  their  once  mighty  empire  in  the  Far  East  the  Portuguese 
retain  Goa,  Diu,  Macao,  and  the  western  half  of  the  island  of 
Timor  (the  Eastern  portion  being  owned  by 
Timor.          the  Dutch).     The  administration  of  the  Dutch 
compares  favourably  with  that  of  the  Portu- 
guese, and  Timor's  revenue  has  to  be  supplemented  from  the 
surplus  of  Macao — one  of  the  most  disheartening  features  of 
Portugal's  colonial  system. 

It  is  true  that  the  Portuguese  colonies  have  made  some 

progress  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  and  that  their 

exports  to  Lisbon  tend  to  increase,  but  they 

Portugal  and     are  stiu  a  drag  on  Portugal's  energies  and 
her  Colonial       ~  „  , 

Empire.         finances.     Yet,    of    course,    the    Portuguese 

have  the  feeling  that  if  they  refuse  to  part 
with  any  of  their  overseas  dominions  and  succeed  at  the  cost 
of  every  sacrifice  in  staving  off  bankruptcy,  and  keeping  their 
colonies  together,  a  time  may  come  two  or  three  centuries 
hence  when  Portugal  may  once  more  be  a  flourishing  empire. 

1  Madeira  and  the  Azores  are  considered  as  districts  of  Portugal 
proper. 


238  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

Perhaps  with  less  centralisation  and,  consequently,  more 
continuity  in  the  administration  of  the  colonies  a  greater 
measure  of  success  will  be  attained.  No  one  will  refuse  to 
pay  a  tribute  to  the  energy  and  ability  of  some  Portuguese 
colonial  Governors.  Certainly  Great  Britain  would  rejoice 
to  see  these  vast  regions  ably  administered  and  developed 
at  the  hands  of  her  ancient  ally.  But  despite  their  obstinate 
resolution  to  part  with  no  inch  of  territory,  the  Portuguese 
have  by  no  means  learnt  to  think  imperially  ;  indeed,  the 
interest  in  the  colonies  seems  only  to  flicker  into  life  when  there 
is  thought  to  be  some  danger  of  losing  them.  And  it  is  clear 
that  generations  must  elapse  before  the  most  painstaking 
and  energetic  action  on  their  part  meets  with  financial  reward. 
Many  observers  have  thus  come  to  the  conclusion  that  Portugal 
would  be  well  advised  to  sell  a  part  of  her  enormous  overseas 
possessions. 

But  against  the  notion  of  those  who  say  that  Portugal  is 
dying,  slowly  dying,  it  is  necessary  to  enter  a  strong  protest. 
If  reference  is  made  to  Portugal's  future, 
"But  has  Portug*1  a  future?"  ask  these 
sceptics.  And  the  answer  is  that  she  has  not 
only  a  future  but  a  great  future.  She  is  in  the  fortunate 
position  of  having  accomplished  great  deeds  and  having 
great  deeds  to  accomplish.  By  no  means  un  peuple  qui  s'en  va. 
Rather  un  peuple  qui  revient.  For,  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
Portugal  may  be  said  to  have  conquered  a  whole  world  and 
lost  her  own  soul.  The  reverse  process  is  now  before  her : 
to  begin  with  Portugal's  own  development  and  prosperity 
and  so  work  outwards,  and  no  one  will  contend  that  to  convert 
Portugal  from  its  miserable  state  into  a  flourishing  and 
contented  country  will  not  merit  all  the  praises  won  by 
Portugal's  discoveries  and  conquests  of  yore. 

But  this  prosperity  cannot  be  sudden.  Public  opinion 
abroad,  at  least,  has  never  asked  of  the  Republicans  one  half 
of  what  they  have  constantly  given,  in  words.  No  one  expected 
the  Portuguese  people  to  become  enthusiastic  electors  after 


Portugal  of  the  Future  239 

a  century  of  indifference  to  politics,  or  to  cease  to  be  illiterate 

at  the  promulgation  of  a  decree.      What  is  asked  of  them 

is  that  they  should  not  indulge  in  continual 

Re  uwfcans  disturbances.  The  majority  of  Portuguese 
Republicans  are  perhaps  rather  weak  and 
vague,  but  kindly,  well-intentioned  persons,  anxious  for  peace 
and  the  prosperity  of  Portugal,  and  it  may  be  imagined  how 
mortifying  to  them  have  been  the  criticisms  brought  upon 
the  Republic  by  action  of  the  extremists.  These  extremists 
have  to  be  eliminated  before  it  is  possible  to  work  for  the 
welfare  of  Portugal,  that  is,  the  gradual  development  of  the 
Portuguese  nation  on  lines  essentially  Portuguese. 

With  a  people  so  ready  to  assimilate  foreign  customs,  it  is 
urgent  not  to  dose  it  with  a  French  atmosphere,  but  to  encou- 
rage all  that  is  truly  national  and  all  too  ready 

to   ^saPPear-     AlonS   these   lines   **   should 

not  be  very  difficult  to  find  a  solution  for  the 
clerical  question  which  has  assumed  serious  proportions  since 
the  Revolution.  On  the  occasion  of  the  third  anniversary 
of  the  Law  of  Separation  between  Church  and  State  in  Portu- 
gal, the  Premier,  Snr.  Bernardino  Machado,  wrote  that  it  was 
"  in  its  essence  a  law  of  defence  and  of  social  pacification." 
Only  if  pacification  means  unrest  can  these  words  correspond 
with  reality.  The  best  way  to  restore  a  spirit  of  quietness 
will  be  to  revise  carefully  the  Law  of  Separation,  or,  if  the 
Democrats  continue  to  oppose  any  such  revision,  to  repeal  the 
law  and  enter  into  a  new  Concordat  between  Portugal  and  the 
Vatican. 

The  character  of  the  people  will  have  to  be  consulted,  too, 
in  the  question  of  decentralisation.     A  sudden  change  is  not 

likely  to  be  more  beneficial  than  an  imported 
Decentralisation,  anti-clericalism.     The  divorce  between  Lisbon 

and  the  provinces  will  no  doubt  go  lessening 
as  communications  improve.  So  long  as  Portugal  is  in  the 
grip  of  a  stringently  centralised  political  machine,  it  is  idle 
to  expect  any  benefit  from  passing  decrees  which  entrust 


240  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

certain  affairs,  for  instance,  construction  and  repair  of  roads, 
to  the  municipal  authorities,  more  especially  as  these  decrees 
do  not  always  provide  any  clue  as  to  how  the  necessary  funds 
are  to  be  raised. 

But  perhaps  it  would  be  possible  to  give  the  town  councils 

a  provisional  autonomy  in  the  matter  of  primary  schools, 

sanitation,  roads,  etc.,  interesting  their  vanity 

Autonom  in  the  result'  taking  advantage  of  local 
patriotism  ;  or,  in  cases  of  signal  neglect, 
imposing  fine  or  disfranchisement.  A  decree  of  the  Republic 
(dated  4th  May,  1911)  has  attempted  something  of  the  sort 
for  agriculture  by  imposing  an  additional  tax  of  five  centavos 
per  hectare  on  uncultivated  land,  and  the  condition  that,  if 
it  is  still  uncultivated  in  twenty  years,  it  shall  become  State 
property.  But  that  savours  perhaps  too  much  of  State 
interference  in  private  property.  At  any  rate,  the  advantage 
of  some  such  scheme  of  decentralisation  would  be  that  the  State 
would  say  to  the  town  councils  :  "I  will  give  you  complete 
freedom  in  these  matters,  and,  far  from  interfering  to  a  greater 
degree,  will  not  interfere  at  all  if  you  will  help  yourselves." 
A  list  of  towns  and  villages  might  be  printed  at  the  end  of 
ten  years  and  posted  up  throughout  the  country,  or  rather 
two  lists,  the  second  being  the  black  list  of 
Black  *Ust  towns  or  villages  which  had  failed  to  give  any 
serious  attention  to  the  schools,  roads,  etc. 
These  would  still  be  kept  under  strict  supervision,  whereas 
the  others  might  be  allowed  complete  independence  in  these 
matters,  gradually,  according  to  their  degree  of  merit.  It 
would  be  a  duty  of  the  Civil  Governors  to  visit  the  towns  and 
villages  in  their  districts,  with  the  help,  when  necessary,  of 
Government  inspectors,  and  it  might  be  possible  to  include 
the  quality  of  bread,  the  water  supply,  the  cleanliness  of  hotels 
and  inns,  tidiness  of  streets,  and  a  few  such  subjects  in  the 
inquiry  without  causing  it  to  degenerate  into  an  inquisition. 
One  is  the  more  inclined  to  attribute  vast  importance  for 
Portugal's  future  to  little  questions  of  this  kind  after  reading 


CEDAR    AVENUE,    BUSSACO 


[See  p.  85 


Portugal  of  the  Future  241 

through  lengthy  decrees,  many  of  the  clauses  of  which  are 
copied  more  or  less  closely  from  earlier  French  decrees  and  are, 
in  relation  to  actual  conditions  in  Portugal,  of  a  theoretical, 
abstract  nature. 

Politics   are,    unhappily,   becoming   more   than   ever   the 
burning  question  at  the  expense  of  administration,  penetrating 

the  whole  life  of  the  nation,  a  maldita  politico,, 

as  the  portuSuese  themselves  say  bitterly. 

Perhaps  future  historians  will  regard  as  the 
gravest  fault  of  the  Republic  that  it  has  thus  exalted  politics 
and  even  saturated  education  with  politics.  Perhaps 
this  is  the  natural  result  of  a  revolution  by  a  minority.  The 
author  of  Ethiopia  Oriental  tells  a  touching  story  of  how  a  lion 
chased  its  prey  to  a  river's  bank,  where  it  succeeded  in  seizing 
its  hindquarters.  A  hippopotamus,  however,  then  put  in 
an  appearance,  and  seized  the  rest,  and  in  the  tug-of-war  that 
ensued,  as  Portugal  now  between  her  political  factions,  the 
unfortunate  animal  had  a  very  disagreeable  time.  But  the 
country  becomes  every  day  more  disgusted  with  politics, 
and  craves  for  honest  non-political  administration.  It  is 
to  be  hoped  that  the  rotative  politics  of  Lisbon  will  soon 
have  had  their  day,  and  that  with  the  spread  of  education  the 
Portuguese  people  will  awake  from  its  long  sleep  of  torpor 
and  come  into  its  own. 

Critics  of  the  Republic  have  to  ask  themselves  what  they 
have  to  set  in  its  place.     Is  the  Monarchy,  which  in  October, 

1910,  melted  away  like  snow  in  the  sun,  even 
Restoration       wimng  to  return  ?     The  Royalists  in  Portugal 

have  amply  shown  their  weakness,  and  the 
active  supporters  of  King  Manoel  seem  to  be  as  few  as  those 
of  Dom  Miguel.  "  Active,"  since,  just  as  in  Spain  Carlism 
as  an  active  cause  is  dead  but  survives  in  spirit,  in  Portugal  a 
spirit  that  would  find  greater  satisfaction  in  a  Restoration  than 
in  the  Republic  is  widespread.  It  is  especially  difficult  to 
forecast  the  future  of  Lisbon  politics  because  in  their  general 
atmosphere  of  indifference  and  laissez-aller  it  is  always  open 

j  6— (2404) 


242  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

to  a  person  or  group  of  persons  to  impose  themselves — for 
a  short  period — in  a  sudden  outbreak  of  energy.  It  might 
not  be  difficult  to  restore  the  Monarchy  temporarily  by  a 
sudden  coup  d'etat :  the  difficulty  would  be  to  maintain  it. 
A  restoration  brought  about  by  force  now  would  create  a  very 
dangerous  and  unsatisfactory  situation.  Not  to  speak  of  the 
constant  danger  to  which  the  King  would  be  exposed  (and 
0  Mundo,  which  has  declared  that  there  is  as  little  right  to 
be  a  Royalist  in  Portugal  as  to  be  a  protector  of  assassins, 
has  shown  how  closely  it  is  in  league  with  assassins  by  warning 
King  Manoel  that  he  will  be  shot  like  his  father  if  he  returns 
to  Portugal),  there  would  be  a  perpetual  renewal  of  conspira- 
cies. The  Republicans,  far  from  being  crushed,  would  gain 
new  adherents  by  constantly  asserting  that  if  they  had  but 
been  given  a  free  hand  they  would  have  performed  wonders 
for  the  people  and  for  Portugal.  It  is  thus  essential  that  the 
Republicans  should  be  given  a  free  hand  to  show  what  they 
can  do.  This  will  be  seen  if  they  are  left  in  peace  by  their 
opponents  till,  say,  the  year  1920.  Royalists  who  have  their 
cause  really  at  heart  will  have  the  wisdom  to  wait  and  not 
injure  it,  perhaps  fatally,  by  foolish  and  precipitate  action. 
The  Royalists  sometimes  say  that  the  Republic  has  manifestly 
failed  because  it  has  increased  the  tendency  to  disorder  and 
indiscipline,  and  rendered  the  financial  situation  more  critical ; 
but  it  would  perhaps  be  fairer  to  say  that  it  will  have  mani- 
festly failed  should  the  next  period  of  five  or  six  years  resemble 
the  first,  since  three  or  four  years  is  not  a  very  long  period  by 
which  to  form  a  definite  opinion  of  a  new  regime  after  a 
revolution. 

But,  judging  from  the  past,  no  one  can  be  very  optimistic. 
A  considerable  number  of  Republicans  at  Lisbon  desire  a  more 

radical  Republic.     The  stages  are  to  be  from 

T*1*  Monarchy  to  Republic,   and  from   bourgeois 

fUtad."       Republic     to    Socialist     Republic,     or    the 

Republica  Radical.     It  was  in  the  same  sense 
that  Don  Pablo  Iglesias,  leader  of   the   Spanish  Socialists, 


Portugal  of  the  Future  243 

prophesied    in    1910   that    the   Portuguese    Republic   would 
not  long  be  content  to  remain  of  the  bourgeois  type. 

A  Republic  of  workmen,  in  which  all  who  did  not  spend  at 
least  five  hours  a  day  in  manual  labour  would  be  disfranchised, 
would  be  a  delightful  experiment.  A  Republic 
Manual  Of  principles  so  excellent  would  not,  however, 
suit  the  character  of  the  Portuguese  very  well 
— a  people  that  still  looks  askance  at  manual  labour  as 
illiberal,  even  to  the  carrying  of  a  parcel  in  the  street,  and  loves 
the  liberal  professions  and  idleness-with-a-sense-of-importance. 
Yet  if  Portugal  wishes  to  be  really  revolutionary  she  would 
adopt  this  programme  of  manual  labour  (with  alternative  of 
military  service)  for  all  under  sixty  years  of  age  from  Minister 
to  miner,  from  President  to  ploughman,  the  only  sure  remedy 
for  a  great  many  modern  social  problems.  And  there  are  other 
revolutionary  methods  by  which  Portugal  in  the  twentieth 
century  might  prove  herself  original  and  win  the  admiration  of 
Europe,  for  instance  by  ordaining  that  women  who  do  a  man's 
Work  should  receive  a  man's  wages,  or  by  teaching  the  people  to 
depend  on  themselves  and  not  on  the  State,  or  by  abolishing 
the  whole  system  of  party  politics. 

Hitherto  her  revolutions  have  only  increased  the  domain  of 
politics,  and  each  party  in  turn  beseeches  the  country  to  look 
to  it  exclusively  with  mouth  agape  for  the 
Abolition        fruit  to  drop  in.     Yet  it  becomes  increasingly 
Politics.         evident  that  the  only  problem  for  all  Portu- 
guese who  love  their  country  is  the  rooting 
out  of  that  kind  of  party  politics  which  has  infested  and  ruined 
the  country  for  three-quarters  of  a  century.     The  remedy  is 
for  all  such  true  patriots  to  club  together  and  found  a  party 
and  a  Press  which  will  have  nothing  to  say  to  clericalism  and 
anti -clericalism  and  other  such  questions,  never  for  a  moment 
discuss  them — what  have  they  to  do  with  the  government 
of  a  State  ? — will  not  concern  itself  with  personal  ambitions, 
merely  looking  upon  the  State  as  a  public  department  of  police 
and  civil  servants,  implying  hard  work,  and  pay  far  less  than 


244  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

would  be  earned  by  men  of  similar  intelligence  devoted  to 
industry. 

Above  all,  such  a  party  would  encourage  the  people  to  expect 

nothing  from   the   State   and  everything  from   themselves. 

It  would  thus  begin  with  the  individual  and 

^Patriots*       teacn  him  to  cultivate  his  own  garden,   a 

lesson   enormously  needed   in   a  country  so 

inclined  to  vague  ideals  and  actual  desleixo.     In  its  Press  and 

in  public  speeches  throughout  the  countries  it  would  show  by 

concrete  facts  and  figures  the  immeasurable  good  achieved 

in  certain  districts  by  a  single  landowner  living  on  his  land 

and  looking  after  his  tenants  and  estate,  or  a  single  priest 

looking  after  his  parish  and  leaving  politics  to  look   after 

themselves,  or  even  on  a  smaller  scale  by  a  single  peasant 

family  with  a  knowledge  of  cleanliness  and  good  cooking. 

These  real  patriots  would  be  so  undignified  politicians 
that  they  would  not  in  their  speeches  mention  a  single  "  ism," 
but  they  would  tell  the  people  what  one 
villaSe  had  gained  in  health  by  a  good  sani- 
tation, what  another  had  gained  in  wealth 
by  having  roads  well  built  and  well  repaired.  They  would 
not  inveigh  against  the  Capitalist  or  the  Conservative  or  the 
Anarchist,  but  they  would  attack  and,  if  possible,  bring  to 
book  those  who  palm  off  on  the  people  sandals  made  of 
blotting-paper  and  bread  made  of  sawdust.  In  a  word, 
they  would  be  concerned  with  the  concrete,  leaving  abstract 
problems  for  philosophers  of  the  study.  And  since  most  other 
parties  are  engaged  in  importing  high-sounding  programmes 
from  abroad,  this  new  party  might  well  call  itself  the  Portu- 
guese Party,  and  its  newspaper  the  Portuguese  People.  The 
peasants  of  Portugal,  witty,  intelligent,  eager  to  learn,  will 
respond  to  words  that  mean  something  to  their  daily  lives, 
and  are  not  merely  pompous  polysyllables  and  the  beating  of 
the  big  political  drum.  The  future  of  Portugal  lies  with  them, 
and  the  party  which  succeeds  in  improving  the  people's  health 
in  body  and  soul  will  have  paved  the  way  for  better  times. 


Portugal  of  the  Future  245 

In  this,  indeed,  all  parties  are  agreed,  but  their  favourite 
method  is  to  make  a  great  sound  and  fury  of  words,  and  to 
promise  the  people  that  if  it  will  but  follow  that  party  only 
some  decree  will  be  passed  which,  before  the  new  moon,  will 
have  changed  them  from  black  to  white,  from  lean  kine  into 
fat  kine.  Yet  a  party  which  really  had  the  people's  interests 
at  heart  would  go  to  work  much  more  gradually,  not  through 
the  abstract  People  but  through  the  individual  and  the 
family,  and  would  make  it  clear  that  the  people  had  nothing 
to  expect  of  the  party,  and  the  party  asked  nothing  of  the 
people.  By  such  obvious  sincerity  the  people  would  be 
brought  to  listen  to  this  party,  and  to  learn  to  live  their  own 
lives — each  family  its  life  in  health  and  independence.  How 
far  removed  this  creed  from  Liberty,  Humanity,  and  other 
such  stereotyped  catchwords,  yet  how  infinitely  more 
conducive  to  a  prosperous  future  for  Portugal ! 

It  cannot  be  too  often  repeated  that  such  strident  questions 
as  anti-clericalism  are  to  a  great  extent  factitious  in  Portugal, 
and  not  of  natural  growth.     The  more  con- 
CMethodsry      ciliatorY   and   apparently   weaker   policy   of 
Dr.  Arriaga,  the  President,  and  Snr.  Antonio 
Jose  de  Almeida,  has  really  been  less  far  removed  from  the 
realities  of  Portuguese  life  than  the  policy  of  Dr.  Affonso  Costa, 
who  is  considered  the  clever  practical  politician  among  his 
more  idealist  colleagues.     The  more  tolerant  attitude  towards 
priests  and  Royalists  has  proved  to  be  not  only  the  kindlier  but 
the  wiser  policy.     This  attitude  became  a  fact  in  the  hands  of 
General  Pimenta  de  Castro.     His  wise  and  moderate  govern- 
ment made  it  more  doubtful  than  ever  if  Portugal,  which  gai  ned 
nothing  by  one  revolution,  would  be  the  gainer  by  a  second. 

The  Restoration  must  be  peaceful  and  gradual  if  it  is  to  be 
permanently    successful.     The    extreme    usefulness    to    the 
Republic  of  Royalist    conspiracies  has  been 
fully  recognised  by  the  "  White  Ants  "  and 
Carbonarios,    and   the    Royalists    themselves 
are  now  convinced  that  it  is  not  by  incursion  or  conspiracy 


246  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

that  they  will  advance  their  interests.  They  realise  that 
without  any  such  methods  Royalism  is  likely  to  gain  strength, 
has  indeed  already  done  so.  No  doubt  many  distrust  the 
idea  of  the  accession  of  Dom  Miguel  because  of  the  reactionary 
traditions  of  the  Miguelist  party,  a  distrust  antiquated  but 
not  unnatural.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Manuelist  cause  is 
weak  because  King  Manoel,  being  then  in  his  teens  and 
brought  suddenly  to  the  throne  by  the  murder  of  his  father 
and  brother,  had  not  time  to  show  that  he  possessed  the  qua- 
lities of  a  strong  ruler.  Strangely  enough,  some  Portuguese 
who  profess  and  call  themselves  Portuguese,  have  no  hesitation 
in  saying  that  the  best  solution  would  be  a  foreign  prince, 
English  or  Italian,  imposed  by  foreign  intervention. 

The  real  inference  is  that  they  desire  above  all  things  a 

strong  and  stable  Government,  and  are  heartily  tired  of  a 

state  of  affairs  which  seems  to  make  a  con- 

I^ngmg  for     tinuity  of  policy  or  any  long  period  of  order 

Stability.        anc^  quiet   alike  impossible.     A   Restoration 

in  a  few  years'  time  may  best  secure  such 

continuity,  and  if  there  is  a  single  fair  and  practical  reform 

opposed  by  the  Royalists  the  Republicans  will  do  well  to 

name  it. 

Not  that  a  Restoration  need  be  considered  of  any  very 

great  importance :    if  the  moderate  Republicans  can  provide 

a  stable  Government  sensible  Royalists  would 

Monarchy        nQ   doubt    cease    frQm    all   opposition   to    the 

ana  umpire.  *  \  ... 

Republic.     But,  of  course,  a  Monarchy  is  in 

accordance  with  the  old  traditions  of  Portugal,  and  has  value 
with  regard  to  the  colonial  empire,  in  which  unrest  has 
increased,  and  very  naturally,  since  the  Revolution  :  the  natives 
more  readily  yield  obeisance  to  a  king  than  to  an  abstraction. 
And  there  would  be  no  danger  of  the  Royalists  setting  them- 
selves to  persecute  in  their  turn  after  a  Restoration,  since  they 
are  well  aware  how  great  would  be  the  outcry  throughout 
Europe.  A  few  political  careers,  certainly,  would  be  cut  short, 
but  perhaps  the  country  would  not  be  greatly  the  loser.  The 


Portugal  of  the  Future  247 

Monarchy  has  value,  too,  in  international  relations,  and  the 
Republicans  do  not  attach  sufficient  importance,  for  instance, 
to  King  Carlos'  foreign  visits  and  to  the  visits  of  foreign 
princes  to  Lisbon  during  his  reign.  They  class  them  among  the 
extravagances  of  the  Monarchy.  These  advantages  will 
probably  be  thrown  into  even  greater  relief  by  another  five 
years  of  Republic. 

If  the  adversaries  of  the  Republic  will  but  refrain  from  all 

movement  of  rebellion  or  incursion,  the  next  five  years  will 

show   with  sufficient   clearness   whether  the 

Labels.         permanent   tranquillity   ardently  desired  by 

the    Portuguese    people    is    to    be    labelled 

Monarchy  or  Republic.     It  is  after  all  little  more  than  a  label 

(the  label  "  Monarchy  "  being  more  useful  in  an  Empire)  ; 

the  thing  required  is  a  Government  willing  and  able  to  employ 

the  services  of  all  Portuguese  in  the  work  of  making  Portugal 

once  more  great  and  prosperous,  to  give  free  scope  to  individual 

energies  under  a  regime  of  true  liberty  and  toleration. 

It  has  been  the  folly  of  the  Republicans  not  to  yield  on  small, 
unessential  questions.     They  have  laid  stress  on  such  secon- 
dary matters  as  the  new  flag  (the  loud  and 
Trifles.         ugly  colours  of  which  will  never  be  readily 
accepted  by  the  Portuguese  nation,   or  so 
affirm  those  who  know  the  Portuguese  intimately),  on  the 
alteration  of  names  of  streets  and  squares  throughout  the 
country.     They  have  made  a  parade  of  much  legislation.     A 
new  heaven  and  a  new  earth.     Yet  it  would  have  been  a 
wiser  policy  on  their  part  not  to  make  so  much  of  these  little 
harassing  novelties,  but  more  quietly  to  work  at  necessary 
essential  changes. 

A  writer  in  1908  remarked  that  "  If  only  the  Government 

could  cease  to  have  recourse  to  the  floating  debt  agriculture 

in  Portugal  would  be  able  to  obtain  the  cheap 

FloatingnDebt     caPital  which  Jt  needs."     But  the  Republic 

has  added  thousands  of  contos  yearly  to  the 

internal  floating  debt,  and  capital  has  greater  inducement 


248  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

than  ever  to  flee  from  agriculture  in  order  to  provide  State 
loans.  Here  a  radical  change  was  required.  Nor  will  Dr. 
Costa's  property-tax  benefit  agriculture.  It  is  more  likely 
to  increase  emigration.  The  docile  peasants  of  Portugal, 
if  they  find  the  conditions  of  their  life  becoming  harder  and 
more  precarious,  do  not  think  of  protesting.  A  few  conflicts 
have  occurred  between  peasants  and  the  Republican  Guard, 
and  the  villagers  have  armed  themselves  with  scythes  and 
pitchforks  to  protect  their  churches  in  the  North.  But 
mostly  they  emigrate,  leaving  the  political  parties  at  Lisbon 
to  devise  and  squabble  over  intricate  and  theoretical  measures 
of  legislation. 

But  there  is  a  reverse  and  more  promising  side  to  all  this. 
That  Lisbon  politics  are  Lisbon  politics,  and  are  not  genuinely 
Portuguese  politics,  but  a  foreign  froth  on  the 
Facts  of  surface  of  the  sleeping  nation,  that  the  major- 
Import,  ity  °f  Portuguese  cannot  read  or  write,  that 
many  of  those  who  can  read  and  write  are 
perfectly  indifferent  to  politics,  are  all  facts  of  twofold  import, 
since,  however  deplorable  in  themselves,  they  imply  that 
the  Portuguese  people  has  not  yet  had  fair  trial,  and  that  it 
may  well  have  a  future  before  it.  The  character  of  the  pea- 
sants outside  the  immediate  influence  of  Lisbon  has  many 
sterling  qualities.  The  problem  consists  in  educating  them 
without  depriving  them  of  their  qualities,  in  civilisation 
without  the  demoralising  effect  of  great  cities  ;  and  indeed 
in  the  coming  age  of  rapid  communications  city  life  will  no 
doubt  be  largely  a  thing  of  the  past.  The  educated  Portu- 
guese of  Lisbon,  far  gone  in  introspective  analysis  and  pessi- 
mism, is  inclined  readily  to  believe  that  the  Portuguese  are 
a  dying  and  decadent  race ;  but  the  truer  view  is  that  the 
Portuguese  nation  is  still  unborn.  It  may  make  its  mark  on 
history  in  future  centuries  as  a  few  individual  Portuguese 
did  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth.  The  future  of  the  nation 
is,  perhaps  fortunately,  not  bound  up  with  that  of  the  Demo- 
crats, as  the  Democrats  would  have  us  believe,  for  the 


A    STUDY    IN    COSTUMES 


Portugal  of  the  Future  249 

Portuguese  nation  with  a  future  is  precisely  all  that  part  of  the 
population  which  has  remained  indifferent  to  the  Republican 
creed,  and  has  not  been  affected  by  Republican  promises. 

It  appears  even  that  the  educated  youth  (as  at  Coimbra),  in 
a  natural  reaction,  is  now  more  inclined  to  turn  to  religious 

and  other  serious  questions  than  it  was  a 
Reaction        generation  ago,  and  it  is  thus  doubtful  whether 

the  Republic  will  be  able  to  renovate  itself 
and  whether  new  politicians  will  come  forward  to  take  the 
place  of  the  three  or  four  now  in  evidence. 

Talleyrand  would  say  in  a  serious  political  crisis  that  there 
'was  still  "  un  petit  moyen,"  meaning  Talleyrand.     Under 

the  Portuguese  Republic  the  "  petit  moyen  " 
"  Mo  en*"       m  exactly  t*16  same  way  has  been  Dr.  Affonso 

Costa,  who  has  Talleyrand's  presumption 
although  he  lacks  his  ability.  Dr.  Almeida  and  Dr.  Camacho 
have  never  had  the  strength  to  take  office,  nor  the  good  sense 
permanently  to  unite  their  parties.  But  since  Dr.  Costa 
has  not  the  will  or  has  not  the  courage  or  has  not  the  power 
to  do  without,  and  indeed  to  crush  Snr.  Franca  Borges  and  his 
Mundo,  and  the  Carbonario  satellites  organised  by  the  Demo- 
crat party  since  the  Revolution,  the  outlook  for  the  Republic 
is  not  very  promising. 

The    Republicans    have   become    a   shrinking   circle.     At 
Oporto,  where  the  Republicans  were  always  few,  they  have 

not  increased  since  1910.     This  is  admitted 
TRepuWic°n      by    sincere    Republicans.     For    instance,    A 

Republica  of  7th  March,  1914  :  "  Oporto  is 
not  sensibly  more  Republican  to-day  than  it  was  on  the 
5th  of  October,  1910.  The  Republican  party  then  at 
Oporto  was  so  plainly  in  a  minority  that  it  was  unable 
even  to  win  the  municipal  elections."  Able  men  such  as 
Dr.  Duarte  Leite  and  Snr.  Bazilio  Telles  tend  more  and 
more  to  hold  aloof  from  politics.  Only  at  Lisbon  a  great 
part,  probably  the  larger  half  of  the  inhabitants,  in  quantity 
if  not  in  quality,  is  enthusiastically  Republican.  It  is 


250  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

likely  to  remain  so  for  several  years.  The  Lisbon  shop- 
keepers have  accepted  with  all  the  simple  want  of  faith  of  the 
half-educated  the  assertion  that  all  the  evils  of  Portugal  came 
from  religion  and  the  Jesuits.  For  the  present  they  are  kept 
in  expectation  of  the  golden  age  that  was  to  follow  the  expul- 
sion of  the  religious  orders  by  a  multitude  of  projects.  Every 
day  0  Seculo,  the  most  widely-read  Republican  newspaper, 
appears  with  some  new  proposition,  the  reorganisation  of  the 
Army,  the  construction  of  a  fleet,  the  acquisition  of  aeroplanes, 
the  extension  of  railways,  roads,  a  bridge  across  the  Tagus, 
and  so  forth.  Of  course  nothing  is  done,  but  the  illusion  of 
a  new  age  is  maintained.  If  in  a  few  more  years  it  is  seen  that 
nothing  of  all  this  has  been  accomplished,  that  deficits  con- 
tinue, and  taxes  increase,  probably  the  Lisbon  world  of 
industry  and  commerce  will  reconsider  its  political  opinions. 
There  have  been  too  many  projects  and  too  much  self- analysis 
at  Lisbon.  It  may  be  seen  from  the  quotations  given  in  this 
book  that  the  Portuguese  Republic  has  had  a  few  bitter  and 
outspoken  critics  in  its  midst. 

The  difficulty  has  been  to  translate  their  words  into  action. 
They  have  called  for  the  punishment  of  the  authors  of  various 
outrages,  but  have  succeeded  at  the  most  in 
b"11^11^  about— an  additional  outrage.  Thus, 
when  Snr.  Pimenta,  a  member  of  the  Evolu- 
tionist party,  placed  on  his  programme  at  a  recent  election  the 
punishment  of  the  delators  and  of  the  promoters  of  public 
disorder,  he  was  set  upon  at  Barreiro  for  his  pains,  and  had 
some  difficulty  in  escaping  from  the  mob.  And  the  same  class 
of  scoundrels  who  wrecked  the  offices  of  all  the  Royalist 
newspapers  at  Lisbon  and  in  the  provinces,  are  waiting  to 
return  to  their  nefarious  practices  should  occasion  offer.  But 
indeed  if  the  moderate  Republicans  realise  that  by  every 
feigned  indifference,  every  timid  acquiescence  in  the  excesses 
of  the  minority,  they  are  driving  a  nail  into  the  coffin  of 
Portugal,  or  at  least  into  the  coffin  of  the  Republic,  they  will 
have  the  courage  to  unite  in  restraining  the  actions  of  this 


Portugal  of  the  Future  251 

minority,  not  only  for  a  few  months,  but  for  ever,  and  they 
will  find  that  the  country  is  on  their  side.  So  far  the  Portu- 
guese might  paraphrase  the  words  of  Thiers,  and  say  that 
"  the  Republic  is  the  form  of  government  which  divides 
us  most."  The  one  idea  of  saving  the  State  or  improving  the 
situation  is  to  split  up  into  more  parties,  to  initiate  a  new 
movement,  to  form  a  new  group  of  defence,  a  band  of  spies 
and  delators,  such  as  the  "  White  Ants,"  or  a  party  of  vague 
idealists.  But  the  nation  will  become  more  and  more  con- 
vinced that  the  road  to  prosperity  does  not  lie  through  politics. 
"  A  violent  change  of  Government  at  present,"  wrote 
0  Socialista  (14th  July,  1913),  (now  A  Vanguarda,  organ  of 
the  Socialists),  "  may  be  welcomed  by  those 

"«A  Tole^ant     honest  Republicans  and  sincere  patriots  who 
Progressive         ,     .  ,  ^ 

Republic."  desire  a  modern,  tolerant,  progressive  Re- 
public, and  a  period  of  tranquillity  and 
careful  work  for  their  country."  A  modern,  tolerant,  pro- 
gressive Government  would  unite  all  but  the  merest  handful 
of  extremists  in  the  common  cause  of  Portugal.  Only  it  is 
necessary  to  emphasise  the  fact  that  the  Government  must  not 
be  tolerant  of  crimes  and  indiscipline,  since  this  appears  to 
have  been  constantly  overlooked  by  Republican  Governments. 
The  punishment  of  one  crime  will  save  many.  It  is  extremely 
improbable  that  the  second  and  far  worse  Gymnasio  Theatre 
outrage  would  have  occurred  had  the  authors  of  the  first  been 
punished.  But  low  as  the  Republic  has  sunk  by  thus  winking 
at  these  iniquities,  it  is  not  too  late  for  it  to  consolidate  and 
retrieve  itself  because  the  longing  for  peace  and  tranquillity 
is  so  prevalent  in  the  country,  and  the  fear  of  another  political 
upheaval  so  great. 

If  the  Republic  proved  itself  not  necessarily  a  very  able 
or  a  very  original  or  a  very  attractive  regime,  but  merely 
fair  and  conciliatory,  it  could  win  over  all 

the   ^Uiet'    d°cile    inhabitants    of    Portugal, 
that  is,  over  90  per  cent,  of  the  population. 
Portugal  should  not  be  a  difficult  country  to  govern  if  it  is 


252  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

once  made  clear  that  those  who  get  out  of  hand  and  go  from 
words  (which  no  wise  ruler  in  Portugal  would  ever  attempt  to 
check)  to  deeds,  will  be  exemplarily  punished.  Docility  is 
the  rule,  and  acquiescence,  so  long  as  the  acquiescent  are 
allowed  the  right  of  perpetual  sarcasm  and  ridicule,  which 
are,  indeed,  the  safety-valve  of  Portuguese  politics.  The 
occasional  movements  of  a  more  serious  nature  might  be 
curbed  more  efficaciously  by  shooting  one  or  two  ringleaders 
than  by  imprisoning  hundreds  of  men  for  months  and  then 
trying  and  acquitting  them.  They  leave  the  prisons  with  a 
sense  of  injustice  suffered  and  are  henceforth  confirmed 
enemies  of  the  Government.  But  the  Democrat  Republicans 
have  shown  the  strangest  determination  to  turn  the  indifferent 
into  enemies  and  to  alienate  friends. 

There  is  scarcely  a  politician  or  newspaper  outside  the  Demo- 
crat party  which  has  not  been  attacked  and  insulted.     Under 
the  searching  action  of  this  party  the  Republic 

The  New       ^as  \)een  m  danger  of  being  limited  to  a  few 
Inquisition. 

thousands,    of    convinced     Democrats     and 

ardent  Republicans  no  doubt,  but  a  few  isolated  thousands. 
And  so  inquisitorial  have  been  their  methods  that  they  have 
in  fact  a  right  to  consider  themselves  lineal  descendants  of  the 
Portuguese  Inquisition,  which  so  vigilantly  sought  out  and 
punished  "  new  Christians "  and  heretics.  They  are  thus 
disciples  of  the  very  body  of  men  whom  they  least  admire, 
but  extremes  meet.  (The  pity  is  that  the  extremists  meet 
also,  as  the  streets  of  Lisbon  have  reason  to  remember.)  They 
have  been  in  too  great  a  hurry.  Fresh  adherents  to  the 
Republic  can  only  come  gradually  if  they  come  at  all.  And 
gradually  must  come  the  benefits,  if  any,  that  the  Republic 
is  to  confer  upon  Portugal.  The  evils  are  four  hundred  years 
old,  and  it  is  absurd  to  attribute  them  to  Dom  Luiz 
or  Dom  Carlos,  or  Snr.  Joao  Franco  ;  and  still  more  absurd 
to  pretend  to  end  them  by  drawing  up  a  hundred  or  so 
new  laws. 

The  work  of  the  Provisional  Government  was  "  gigantic, 


Portugal  of  the  Future  253 

marvellous,  superb,"  declared  the  Republican  deputy,  Snr. 
Alexandre  Braga.  "  Never  again,"  he  said  in  a  dithyrambic 
speech,  typical  of  the  muddy  thinking  of  the  day,  "  never  again 

will  the  family  in  Portugal  return  to  the  state 
Rhetorhf        °^  demoralising  hypocrisy   to   which   it   was 

nailed  by  the  rigid  dogma  that  forbade 
divorce.  Never  again  will  woman's  dignity  be  bespattered 
by  lies  and  disloyalty  and  treachery  through  having  to  hide 
as  a  disgrace  the  pure  flame  of  her  true  love  [i.e.,  for  some  one 
not  her  husband].  Never  again  will  the  children  be  poisoned 
by  the  lethal  infiltration  of  a  Jesuit  education.  No  more 
cloisters,  no  more  superstition,  no  more  showy  and  mercenary 
charity.  .  .  ." 

Yet  it  was  more  not  less  discipline  that  Portuguese  society 
required.     Fatal  to  Portugal  is  likely  to  prove  the  policy 

which   seeks   deliberately   to   undermine   all 
Discipline.       authority — of  the  family   (by  new  facilities 

given  to  divorce)  ;  of  the  priest  (by  instituting 
public  worship  societies)  ;  of  the  landowner  (by  taxing  him 
to  a  fourth  or  more  of  his  income),  of  the  Army  (by  subjecting 
it  to  the  Carbonarios),  of  the  police  (by  encouraging  "  White 
Ants  "  and  mob  to  take  the  law  into  their  own  hands),  of 
justice  (by  dismissing  and  banishing  those  judges  who  refuse 
to  be  influenced  by  politics),  of  the  law  (by  shaping  it  entirely 
to  party  ends). 

Some  clauses  of  the  present  Constitution  are  excellent,  but 
they  are  dead  letters.     In  Chapter  II  (concerning  the  rights 

and  guarantees  of  individuals),  for  instance, 
Constitution      c^ause  4  decrees  that  "  Liberty  of  conscience 

and  belief  is  inviolable."  So  "No  one  can 
be  persecuted  on  the  ground  of  religion  "  (clause  6)  ;  "  Expres- 
sion of  thought  in  whatever  form  is  completely  free,  without 
previous  censure "  (clause  13 ;  but,  proceeds  this  clause, 
the  abuse  of  this  right  is  liable  to  punishment)  ;  "  The  right 
of  meeting  and  association  is  free "  (clause  14)  ;  "  The 
inviolability  of  private  houses  is  guaranteed  "  (clause  15)  ; 


254  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

"  No  one  can  be  arrested  without  a  warrant  "  (clause  18)  ; 
"  The  secrecy  of  the  post  is  inviolable  "  (clause  28)  ;  "  Citizens 
may  resist  any  order  which  infringes  the  guarantees  of  the 
individual,  unless  these  guarantees  have  been  suspended  by 
law  "  (clause  37).  It  is  certainly  time  to  put  these  excellent 
precepts  into  practice. 

"  Pazponcn  los  omes  entre  si  d  las  vezes,"  said  King  Alfonso  X 

some  seven  centuries  ago  :  "  men  sometimes  make  peace  with 

one  another  "  ;    and  this  is  still  occasionally 

ThC  ofyaanny     the  Case'     There  is  no  reason  why  a11  moderate 

Minority.        an<^   patriotic  Portuguese   should   not   unite 

to    eliminate    the    extremists.     It    ill    befits 

Portugal's  dignity  that  a  body  of  some  six  thousand  should 

tyrannize  over  a  population  of  six  millions.     There  is  scope 

for  the  activities  of  all  Portuguese,  room  for  the  interests  of 

all,  in  Portugal  and  in  the  Portuguese  colonies. 

But  so  long  as  this  small  minority  dominates  and  system- 
atically stifles  the  voice  of  the  majority  of  the  Portuguese  and 
gags  the  Portuguese  Press,  foreign  criticism 
will  be  legitimate  and  necessary.  The  Demo- 
crats constantly  misrepresent  all  such  criti- 
cism as  hostility  towards  Portugal  (instead  of  hostility  towards 
the  Carbonarios  and  Democrats),  a  misrepresentation  which 
excites  much  amusement  among  those  who  know  that  nine- 
tenths  of  the  inhabitants  of  Portugal  detest  and  fear  their 
despotism.  Foreign  critics  must  be  few  and  ignorant  indeed 
who  are  animated  by  dislike  of  Portugal  or  the  Portuguese. 
Most  foreigners  after  a  sojourn  in  Portugal  take  away  the  most 
pleasant  impressions  of  the  land  and  people,  and  they  deplore 
the  fact  that  it  should  be  possible  to  say  of  Portugal,  as  was 
once  said  of  Spain,  that  it  has  been  given  every  blessing  except 
that  of  a  good  Government.  Rich  in  its  sea  and  soil,  and 
subsoil  and  climate,  rich  in  buildings,  traditions  and  literature 
from  a  glorious  past,  fortunate  in  the  intelligent  and  pro- 
gressive character  of  the  inhabitants,  Portugal  possesses 
splendid  advantages. 


Portugal  of  the  Future  255 

That  these  advantages  should  be  turned  to  account  depends 
rather  on  the  individual  energy  and  enterprise  of  every  Portu- 
guese than  on  politics.     All  that  should  be 

Enteri(r?se  desired  of  the  Government  is  that  it  should 
afford  a  fair  and  open  field  for  individual 
effort.  And  every  Portuguese  who  lives  not  in  Paris  but  in 
Portugal,  who  devotes  himself  to  hard  work  instead  of  some 
so-called  liberal  profession,  and  who  in  his  own  immediate 
sphere  of  action  encourages  among  the  peasants  cleanliness 
and  regard  for  health,  and  among  the  educated  toleration  and 
discipline,  will  do  more  for  Portugal  than  all  the  wordy  warfare 
of  the  party  politicians. 

Gil  Vicente,  four  centuries  ago,  implored  his  countrymen  "not 
to  be  Genoese  but  very  Portuguese,"  and,  if  the  Portuguese 
wish  to  renew  that  respect  in  which,  on  account 
Imitations  of  their  past  history,  they  are  still  held  abroad, 
they  will  make  Portugal  not  less  but  more 
Portuguese.  And  since  all  the  troubles  of  Portugal  during 
the  last  hundred  years  have  come  from  foreign  importations, 
of  language,  literature,  politics,  habits,  imperfectly  adapted 
to  the  requirements,  customs,  and  character  of  Portugal, 
there  are  a  hundred  ways  in  which  this  can  be  done,  as  for 
instance,  by  purifying  the  language  from  Gallicisms  and 
empty  pomposities  (a  Lisbon  political  party  has  recently 
declared  its  programme  to  be  procurar  effectivar  uma  politico, 
de  realizafdes  :  the  gorgeous  sound  of  it  stuns  an  audience, 
but  the  words  are  really  as  empty  as  a  pod  that  rattles  in  the 
wind  after  shedding  all  its  seeds)  ;  by  encouraging  regional 
literature ;  by  living  the  Portuguese  country  life  which  formed 
a  delightful  feature  in  Portugal  before  the  foreign  conquests 
of  the  sixteenth  century  drew  all  men  to  Lisbon.  Even  the 
importation  of  foreign  capital  has  been  a  doubtful  gain,  and 
has  either  been  squandered  with  small  result  or  been  applied 
by  foreigners.  "  Our  principal  railway  company  is  foreign, 
our  electric  trams  foreign,  the  gas  company  is  largely  con- 
stituted by  foreign  capital,  our  chief  exports,  as  those  of  cork, 


256  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 

preserves,  wine  of  Oporto  and  Madeira,  copper,  etc.,  are  in  the 
hands  of  foreigners,  a  great  part  of  our  external  commerce  and 
transports  is  carried  on  by  foreigners  "  (0  Seculo,  13th  Novem- 
ber, 1911).  And,  worst  of  all,  the  political  programmes  are 
foreign.  Foreigners  may  be  inclined  to  smile  when  they  see 
foreign  customs  and  institutions  (as  the  English  parliamentary 
system)  distorted  and  misapplied  in  Portugal,  but  for  all  that 
is  genuinely  Portuguese  they  can  have  nothing  but  admiration 
and  respect. 

With  a  population  so  docile  and  ready  to  learn,  above  all  so 
inclined  to  prefer  some  distant  uncertainty  to  the  reality 

before  them,  it  is  all-important  to  have  a 
Influwicc       strong  non-political  influence  in  each  parish, 

whether  that  influence  be  of  priest  or  profes- 
sor, doctor  or  landowner.  Without  some  such  nucleus  more 
and  more  will  vagueness  and  bewilderment  drive  the  peasant 
in  a  stream  of  emigration  to  Lisbon  and  Brazil,  and  Portugal 
become  denationalised. 

That  "  violent  change "   advocated  by  A    Vanguarda  in 
1913  was  brought  about  two  years  later  by  the  movement, 

without    violence,    which    brought    General 
1     Pimenta  de  Castro  into  power.     Snr.  Manoel 

de  Arriaga  and  General  Pimenta  de  Castro 
deserve  the  lasting  gratitude  of  their  country  for  having 
attempted  to  provide  the  first  indispensable  conditions  for 
all  those  who  wish  to  work  for  the  good  of  Portugal.  A 
Government  of  this  kind,  impartial,  conciliatory,  and  firm, 
offered  to  every  Portuguese  without  exception — even  Snr. 
Paiva  Conceiro,  the  leader  of  the  Royalist  incursions  of  1911 
and  1912,  was  allowed  to  return — an  opportunity  to  lay 
politics  aside  and  unite  to  raise  Portugal  from  her  present 
misery.  Every  sincere  Portuguese  will  admit  that  there  is 
much  work  ready  to  his  hand  which  has  little  to  say  to  politics, 
if  it  be  only  the  development  of  an  acre  of  land  or  the  recon- 
ciliation between  two  rival  points  of  view.  And  another  sign 
of  good  omen  is  the  more  serious  outlook  on  life  of  the  younger 


Portugal  of  the  Future  257 

generation  and  the  existence  of  a  new  party — that  of  the 
Integralists — which  is  inclined  to  set  to  work  obscurely, 
gradually,  unconventionally,  with  a  view  to  the  actual  needs 
of  the  people,  of  the  professional  working  man. 

Every  great — or  small — landowner  who  takes  a  personal 
interest  in  his  property,  every  non-political  politician — the 
phrase   is   no    contradiction   in   terms — who 
Conquests        studies  not  rhetoric  but  reality,  every  Portu- 
guese,  however  humble,   who   cultivates  his 
own  garden,  whether  that  garden  be  the  Portuguese  language 
or  literature  or  soil  or  subsoil   or  industry,   will   go  a  step 
towards  constituting  a  real  Portugal  of  the  Portuguese,  and 
will  deserve  as  many  laurels  of  his  country  as  crown  the  brows 
of  the  old  Conquistadores. 


17— (2404) 


GLOSSARY 


Abastado.     Wealthy. 

Aga.     H. 

Agoadeiro.     Water-carrier. 

Agoureiro.    Prophetic. 

Alfandega.  Customs-house  (from 
Arab.). 

Alcachofra.  Thistle  or  artichoke 
(from  Arab.). 

Alern.  Adv.  beyond  (from  alii 
ende).  Lancaster,  in  Portu- 
guese, became  Alem-castro. 

Alforges.  Saddlebags  (from  A  rob.) . 

Algarvio.  Inhabitant  of  Algarve  ; 
chatterer. 

Almocreve.    Carrier  (from  Arab.). 

Alto.     High. 

Amanha.     To-morrow. 

Amendoa.     Almond. 

Amigo.     Friend. 

Andar.     To  walk,  to  go. 

Andorinha.     Swallow. 

Anichar.     Find  a  place  for. 

Armazem,  plur.  -ns.  SJ;ore,  stores 
(from  Arab.}. 

Arranjar.     Arrange. 

Avenida.     Avenue. 

Azinheira.     Evergreen  oak. 

Azulejo.  Glazed  tile  (from  Arab., 
though  commonly  derived  from 
azul,  blue). 

B 

Bacalhau.     Stock-fish. 
Barraca.     Hut. 
Beirao.     Inhabitant  of  Beira. 
Benzedor.    Lit.  =  Blesser. 
Bica.     Spout  of  fountain,  etc. 
Bilha.     Water-jar. 
Boeirinha.     Fern   Dimin.  of  boeiro 

—  Fr.  bouvier,  ox -man. 
Boas  Festas.  Bonne  fete. 
Branco.  White. 


Brando.     Soft,  gentle. 

Brazileiro.  Portuguese  returned 
rich  from  Brazil. 

Broa.  For  Boroa,  Borona  (pro- 
bably corruption  of  Morona), 
maize-bread. 

Broinha.    Dimin.  of  broa. 

Bruxa.  Witch.  Also  night-light ; 
also  earthenware  jar  with  holes. 

C 

Cabo.     Cape. 
Cabula.     Idler. 
Calaceiro.     Idler. 
Calcada.     Paved  way,  street. 
Caloiro.     First-year     student     at 

Coimbra  University. 
Campo.     Field.     No    c.     In    the 

country. 
Canga.     Yoke. 
Cantadeira.          Girl     improvising 

songs  at  romarias,  etc. 
Cantiga.     Song.     Short  poem  = 

Canto,  Cantar. 
Cantoneiro.       Road -mender    (Fr. 

cantonier) . 
Capa.     Cloak. 
Carta.     Letter. 
Casado.     Married. 
Castanha.     Chestnut. 
Cauteleiro.   Street  seller  of  lottery 

tickets. 

Cavaco.     Gossip. 
Centavo  =  dezreis,  a  halfpenny. 
Cera.     Wax. 
Cervo.     Stag. 

Chafariz.     Fountain  (from  A  rab.). 
Chegar.     To  arrive. 
Charneca.  Moorland  (from  Span.). 
Cheia.     Flood  (from  Lat.  plenus). 
Cheiro.     Scent. 
Chiste.     Quip,  jest. 
Choupal.      Poplar     grove     (from 

choupo). 


259 


260 


Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 


Chuva.     Rain    (Lat.    pluvia,    Fr. 

pluie,  Sp.  lluvid). 
Cidade.     City. 
Cisne.     Swan. 
Ciume.     Jealousy. 
Clerigo.     Priest. 
Collareja.    Vegetable-seller  (from 

village  of  Collares). 
Comedia  =  Comedoria.    Food. 
Conquistador.    Conqueror. 
Consoada.    Light  supper,  or  extra 

meal,   especially  on   Christmas 

Eve. 
Conto.     Story.      Conto   (de  reis), 

a    tale    of    a    million    rtis    (  = 

about  £200). 
Cordoaria.     Place  where  cords  or 

ropes  are  made. 
Coroca.     Cloak  of  reeds. 
Coutada.     Enclosed  park. 
Crescer.     To  grow. 
Cruz.     Cross. 


Deixarse-estar.  Let  oneself  be, 
or  drift. 

Deixarse-ir  (Fr.  laisser  aller). 

Demissionario.  Of  Minister  or 
Government  about  to  resign. 

Desabado.  Chapeo  d.  Wide- 
brimmed  hat. 

Desde.    Since,  from. 

Desejar.     Desire. 

Desleixo.     Slovenliness. 

Despesas.     Expenses. 

Deus.     God. 

Dia.     Day. 

Diario.     Daily  newspaper. 

Dom,  Dona.  Sp.  Don,  Dona ; 
Lat.  Dominus. 

Donzellinha.  Dimin.  of  donzella, 
Maiden. 

Doutor.  Doctor  (e.g.,  of  Divi- 
nity). Doctor  (M.D.)  is  Medico. 


Empregomania.     Bureaucracy. 
Ensino.     Education. 
Escudo    =    Milreis    =    about    5 
francs 


Esfolhada.  Gathering  of  men  and 
women  to  separate  maize-cobs 
from  their  sheath. 

Esperan<;a.     Hope. 

Estalagem.     Inn. 

Exma.  =  Excellentissima  =  most 
excellent. 


Fado.    Melancholy  modern  ballad 

(connected     with      the     word 

"fate"). 
F6.     Faith. 
Festa.     Holiday. 
Festejar.     Celebrate. 
Feiticeiro.     Sorcerer.      Also  adj., 

Charming  (from  feitifo,  charm  ; 

cf.  Fetish). 
Fidalgo.     Nobleman. 
Fiel,  eis.     Faithful. 
Filho.     Son. 
Fogareiro.     Stove. 
Formiga.     Ant. 
Fregues.     Customer. 
Furtar.     To  steal. 
Futrica.     Town    as    opposed    to 

Gown  (at  Coimbra). 


Gallo.     Cock. 

Gallego.     Inhabitant  of  Galicia. 
Garrido.     Fine,  fair,  smart. 
Gente.     People.  The  peasants  use 

a  genie  as  =  "  I  "  or  "  we." 
Geral.      Adj.,   General. 
Gosto.     Pleasure. 

H 

Herdade.    Large  farm  or  estate. 
Horta.    Vegetable  garden. 
Hospedaria.    Inn,  hotel. 

I 

Ilha.  Island. 

Infeliz.    Unhappy,  miserable. 

Ingreme.     Steep. 

J 

Janeiras.      Songs  of  New  Year's 
Day. 


Glossary 


261 


anella.     Window, 
ardim.    Garden, 
unta.     Committee. 
usticeiro.          Just ;      practising 
justice. 


Ladainha.     Litany. 
Lagrimas.     Tears. 
Lamuria.      Blind    beggar's   com- 
plaint. 

Laranjeira.   Orange-tree. 
Lareira.     Hearth. 
Largo.     Square. 

Lavrador.     Peasant ;  ploughman. 
Leilao.     Auction. 
Leziria.     Alluvial  land. 
Lisboeta.     Inhabitant  of  Lisbon. 
Livro.     Book. 
Lua.     Moon. 
Lume.     Fire. 
Luta,  Lucta.     Strife,  struggle. 

M 

Maca.     Apple. 

Magico.     Magician. 

Mais.     More.      (Mas  =  But.) 

Magusto.  Fire  for  roasting  chest- 
nuts. 

Maldito.    Accursed. 

Mansamente.     Gently. 

Marinha.     Salt-pits. 

Matto.     Moorland. 

Mavioso,  Meigo.  Charming,  deli- 
cate. 

Meia  duzia.    Half-a-dozen. 

Menagem.    Oath  (  Homenagem) . 

Metter.   To  put,  place. 

Minhoto.    Inhabitant  of  Minho. 

Missa.     Mass. 

Moca.     Girl. 

Mocidade.     Youth. 

Molhadinho.  Dimin.  of  Molhado, 
Wet. 

Monte.  Estate  (in  Alemtejo  or 
Algarve). 

Morango  and  Morangao.  Straw- 
berry. 

Morgadinha.  Fern,  dimin.  of  Mor- 
gado,  Heir  of  entailed  estate. 

i7A— (2404) 


Mosteiro.     Monastery. 

Mundo.     World. 

Municipip.    Town     Hall,     Town 

Council. 
Murta.     Myrtle. 

N 

Noite.     Night. 
Nortada.     North  wind. 
Noticias.     News. 
Novidade.     Novelty. 


Oiro,  Ouro.     Gold. 
Orvalhada,    Orvalho.     Dew. 


Paco,  Palacio.     Palace. 
Padre.     Priest  (Father  is  Pae) . 
Palmellao.     Wind  from  Palmella. 
Para  que  serve  ?    What  is  the  use 

of? 
Passarinho.     Dimin.  of  Passaro, 

Bird. 

Pauta.    Tariff. 
Pavoroso.     Terrible. 
Pega.     Magpie. 

Poblador.      Founder  =  Povoador. 
Poco.     Well. 
Podridao.     Rottenness. 
Praca.     Square. 
Praia.     Shore. 
Pregoes.     Street  cries. 
Primo  or  Primo  Coirmao.     Cousin 
Pronto.     Ready. 
Pronunciamento  =  Sp.     Pronun- 

ciamiento. 

0 

Quadra.     Quatrain. 

Quanto,   quantos  ?      How   much, 

How  many  ? 
Quem  da  ?    Who  gives  ? 
Quentinha.         Fern,     dimin.      of 

Quente,  Hot.      (Contraction  of 

caliente.) 
Quinta.     Country-house. 


Rabadao.      Shepherd   (  =  Reban- 
heiro) . 


262 


Portugal  of  the  Portuguese 


Redondilhas.  Verses  of  four  lines 
of  eight  syllables. 

Regateira.   Market-woman. 

Reis.     Kings. 

Reis.  Plural  of  real  (20  re  is  = 
a  penny). 

Republica.  At  Coimbra  Univer- 
sity a  group  of  students  living 
together. 

Rocio  =  Praca.  Square  (formerly 
redo). 

Roda.     Wheel. 

Romance,  Cantar  romance.  Old 
ballad  usually  in  lines  of 
sixteen  syllables.  Formerly 
romance  =  common  (Portu- 

C;se)  language  as  opposed  to 
tin.     In  modern  Portuguese 

it  =  "  novel."     (Fr.  roman.) 
Romaria.     Pilgrimage. 
Rosmaninho.     Rosemary. 
Rua.     Street.      Rua   Nova,    New 

Street. 

S 

S.  =  'Sao.   Saint. 
Saber.     To    know. 
Sala.     Hall. 
Saloio.   Peasant  of  neighbourhood 

of  Lisbon. 

Saudade.       Wistfulness ;     bitter- 
sweet regret. 
Saudoso.      Filled   with   regret  or 

longing. 
Se.     Cathedral. 
Sebastianismo.      The  attitude  of 

mind  that  looks  for  the  return 

of  King  Sebastian. 
Senhor.     Sir ;    lord. 
Serra.     Mountain  lange. 


Servicaes.          Servants  ; 

labourers. 
Simples.     Simple. 


day- 


Taverna,  Taberna.  Tavern  ;  way- 
side inn. 

Tejo.   Tagus  (Sp.  Tajo). 

Terra.    Earth  ;    country. 

Terreiro.     Terrace. 

Torre.     Tower. 

Tosquia.     Shearing. 

Tourada.     Bull-fight. 

Trabalho.  Labour ;  sorrow  ; 
trouble. 

Trato.     Commerce. 

Tratos.     Torture. 

Travessa.    Passage ;    side  street. 

Troca,  Fazer  troca  de.  Satire,  skit. 


V.E.  or  V.  Exa.  =  Vossa  Excel- 
lencia.  Your  Excellence. 

Vamos.     Let  us  go. 

Varina.  Fishwoman  (  =  woman 
of  (O)var). 

Velho.     Old. 

Venda.     Inn  (Sp.  venta). 

Venho.     I  come. 

Veraneantes.     Summer  residents. 

Viagem.     Journey. 

Vintem.     Penny. 

Vosse.     You. 

Vossemece.  Your  Worship  =  you. 


Zagal,  aes.     Shepherfl  boy  (from 
Arab.}. 


INDEX 


AFFONSO,  Prince,   116-7 

I.  93,   107-8 

II,  109 

Ill,  109,   110 

IV,   111 

-  V,   115,   116 

-  VI,   124,   125 
Afforestation,  32,  33 
Agriculture,  29,  37,  40 
Aguadeiros,  43 

Alba,  Duke  of,  121 
Albuquerque  (Affonso  d'),  6,  22, 

88,  117,  118,  119 
Albuquerque  (Bras  d'),  138 
Alcacer,   115 
Alcacer  do  Sal,   109 
Alcacer-Kebir,   100,   120 
Alcachofras,  54 
Alcoa,  The,  94 
Alcoba9a,  21,  79,  84,  92-5 
Alcoforado  (Marianna  de),  142 
Alemtejo,  25,  31,  32,  39,  47,  59, 

60,  79,  80,  82,  103,  106 
Alfama,  48 

Alfarrobeira,  Battle  of,  115 
Alfonso  X,  109,  110,  134 
Algarve,  25,  79,  80,  82,  103,  106, 

109 

Algarvios,  4 

Aljubarrota,  84,  95,  113,  222 
Almeida  (Antonio  Jose  de),   169, 

176,  177,  184,  187,  245,  249 

-  (D.  Joao  de),  204 
Almeida  Garrett  (J.  B.  da  S.  L.) 

Viscount,  41,  76,  145,  152 
Almourol,   100 
Alpoim  (Jose  de),  186 
Alvares  (Joao),  96 
Amadis  of  Gaul,   133 


Amarante,  37 
Ameixial,  Battle  of,   125 
Amelie,      Queen.       See      MARIE 

AMELIE 
Andrade  (Anselmo  de),  193 

Caminha  (Pedro  de),  140 

Angola,  235 

Anti-clericalism,  29,  61-7 
Antonio,  Prior  of  Crato,  121,  122 
Areias,  91 

Armada,  The,  122 

Army,  74 

Arriaga  (Manoel  de),  67,  201,  210, 

212,  215,  245,  256 
Arte  de  Furtar,  57,  83 
Atouguia,  Count  of,  128 
Aveiro,  39,  79 

(Pantaleao  de),  138 

— ,  Duke  of,  128 

Azevedo  (Victor  Hugo  de),  211 
Azulejos,  36,  43 

Azurara  (Gomez  Eannes  de),  115, 
136 

BACALHAU,  30,  36 

Ba9a,  The,  94 

Barbosa  Machado  (Diogo),  142 

Barreiro,  35,  47 

Barros  (Joao  de),  46,  137 

Basto,  37 

Batalha,  21,  84,  95-7 

Beckford  (William),   1 

Begging,  56,  57 

Beira,  25,  53,  59 

Beiroes,  3,  4 

Beja,  38,  39,  83,  103-4 

Belem,  88-9,  96 

Beresford,  General,  129,  130 

Bernardes  (Diogo),  100,  140 


263 


264 


Index 


Bernard es  (Manoel),   142 

Blake,  William,  72 

Bocage  (M.  Barbosa  du),  143 

Bombarda  (Miguel),  195 

Bom  Jesus,  50 

Botelho  (Abel),  148 

Braga,  25,  38,  39,  56,  83,  100 

(Alexandre),  253,  212 

-  (Theophilo),   8,    15,   20,   70, 
133,    150,    165,    166,    176,    195, 
198,  215 

Braganfa,  38,  39,  101 
Braganza,  Duke  of,  1 16 
Brazileiros,  27,  55 
Brito  (Bernardo  de),   141 

Camacho  (Manuel),  169,  177, 

203,  249 

Broas,  45,  50 

Buarcos,  45 

Bucellas,  37 

Buiga  (Manuel  dos  Reis),  189 

Bull-fights,  55 

Bureaucracy,  57,  73 

Bussaco,  45,  85 

Byron,  Lord,   14 

CABRAL  (Pedro  Alvares),  119 

Calcoen,  6-7 

Caldas  da  Rainha,  45,  79,  82 

Cambridge,  Earl  of,  221,  222 

Camoes(Luisde),89,  140,  154-166 

Canalejas  (Jose),  175 

Candido  dos  Reis,  Admiral,  195 

Cangas,  59 

Cantigas,   16-19,  51-54 

Cape  Espichel,  91 

Verde  Islands,  237 

Carbonaria,  180,  181.  182,  200,  204 
Carcavellos,  37 

Carlos  I,  131,  132,  183,  184,  188, 

190,  247 

Carlotta,  Queen,   130 
Carnegie  (Hon.  Lancelot),  227 
Cascaes,  45,  85,  121,  122 
Castello  Branco,  38,  39 

(Camillo),   146 

-  Melhor,  Count  of,   124 
Castilho  (A.  F.  de),  144 
Castro  (Eugenic  de),  94 

-  (Ines  de),  93-5 


Castro  (Joao  de),  6,  138 

(Jose  Luciano  de),  183,  191 

Catharina,  Queen,  224 
Caverel  (Philippe  de),  30 
Centenarians,  26 

Ceuta,   114 

Chagas  (Joao),  172,  187,  190,  201, 

202,  214,  218 
Charneca,  91 
Chestnuts,  45,  46 
Chiado,  41 

Cintra,  44,  45.  76,  86,  89,  91 
Clenardus  (N.),  83 
Clergy,  63 
Climate,  80 

Coelho  (F.  Adolpho),  15 
Coimbra,  25,  38,  39.  57,  58,  73. 

94,  98-100 

Collares.  37,  44,  78,  86 
Colonies,  13,  233-8 
Commerce,  37 
Consiglien  Pedroso  (Z.),  15 
Consoadas,  50 
Contos,   148 
Cork,  39 
Corocas,  59 
Correa  (Caspar  de),  137 

(Garcao),  143 

Cortesao  (Jaime),  16 

Costa  (Affonso  da),  13,  65,  169, 
171,  176,  177,  178,  179,  184. 
187,  192,  205,  209,  210,  231, 
232,  245,  249 

(Alfredo  Luis  da).  189 

Couto  (Diogo  do).  107,  137 
Covilha,  36.  100 

Crato,   100 

Cruz  (Agostinho  da),  140 

(Caspar  da),   138 

Customs  Dues,  230 

DELGADO  (A.  G.),  80 
Denis.    See  DINIZ 
Description  de  Lisbonne,  20 
Desleixo,   10,   11 
Deus  (Joao  de),   144 
Diercks  (Gustav),  220 
Diniz,  King,  33,  92,  94,  95,  103, 
110,  111,  112,  135,  221,  229 
-  (Julio),  17,  147 


Index 


265 


Douro,  The,   101 
Drake,   122 
Drama,   149,   152 
Duarte,  Infante,   124 

-  King,  5,  95,  96,   114 
Leite,  205,  249 

ECA  DE  QUEIROZ  (J.  M.),  22,  74, 

75,   147 

Education,  58,  67-73 
Elvas,  103 
Elysio  (Filinto),   143 
Emigrants,  26,  27,  47 
Esfolhadas,   15 
Estoril,   Os   Estoris,    45,    76,   80, 

81,  85,  86 

Estremadura,  25,  39,  80 
Euzebio  (A.  M.),  20 
Evora,  39 

FALCAO  (Christovam) ,  140,  141 

Faro,  39,  79,   106 

Ferdinand  of  Saxe  Coburg  Gotha, 

90,   131 
Fernando  I,   112 

-  Infante,  95,  96,  114 
Fernandes Galvao  (Francisco),  139 

—  Trancoso     (Gon9alo).       See 
TRANCOSO 
Ferreira  (Antonio),  95,  140,  152 

-  d' Almeida  (Joao),  165 
Ficalho,  Conde  de,  60 
Figueiredo  (Fidelino  de),  149 
Finances,  229-233 
Fishing,  35,  36 
Folk-lore,   15 

Food,  21 

Foreigners  and  Portugal,   11,   12, 

26,  254 

Fran9a  Borges,   187,  249 
France  and  Portugal,  viii,  75,  125 
France  (Anatole),  44,  202 
Franco  (Joao),  183,  184,  185,  186, 

187,  188,  190 

Freire  d'Andrade  (Jacinto),  141 
Freitas  (Joao  de),  209,  214 
Fructuoso  (Caspar),  138 
Funerals,  22 

GAIA,   103 


Galicia,  30,  56,  82,  107,  1 1 1 
Gama  (Vasco  da),  6,  89,  115,  117, 

138 

Garrett.     See  ALMEIDA  GARRETT 
Gaunt  (John  of),  221 
Germany  and  Portugal,  219,  220, 

227,  228 

Goes  (Damiao  de),  134,  136 
Goethe  (J.  W.  von),  62,  72 
Gomes  Coelho  (J.  G.).  See  DINIZ 

(JULIO) 

Freire  de  Andrade,  General, 

130 

Gon9alves  (Nuno),  150 

Crespo,   145 

Great  Britain  and  Portugal,  vii, 

123,  124,  125,  216-28 
Guarda,   100 
Guerra  Junqueiro  (Abilio),  8,   17, 

22,  145,  206 
Guimaraes,  36 
Guinea,  236 

HARDINGE  (Sir  Arthur),  227 
Henry,  Cardinal,   120,   121 

Infante,  95,  96,  98,  102,  114, 

115,  150,  222 

of  Burgundy,  93,  100,  107 


Herculano  (Alexandre),  9,  40,  61, 

146 

Hintze  Ribeiro,  183 
Historia  Tragico-Maritima,  138 
Holdings,  30-31 
Holland  and  Portugal,   123,   124, 

125 

IGLESIAS  (Pablo  de),  242 
Illiterates,  1,  67,  68 
Imports,  38,  39 
Inns,  83,  84 
Inquisition,  The,  6 
Integralists,  257 
Irish  and  Portuguese,   1 
Irrigation,  32 

JANEIRAS,  50 

Jesuits,  63,  128,  200 

Jesus  (Thome  de),  139 

Jews,  4,  6 

Joao  I,  95,  96,  113,  114,  222 

II,   116,   117 


266 


Index 


Joao  III,  77.  89,  119,  120 
IV,  123,  223 

-  V,  126,  127,  128 

-  VI,   129,   130 
Jose  I,   127,   128 
Juan  I,  95,  112,  113 
Juana,  Princess,   116 

LAGOS,   103 

Le£a,  The,  79 

Leiria,  33,  38,  85 

Leitao  de  Andrade  (M.),  85 

Leite  de  Vasconcellos  (Jose),    15 

53,  151 

Leonor,  Queen,   113 
Lima,  The,   100 
Limoeiro,  49 
Lisbon,  4,  25,  38,  41-9,  63,  70,  88, 

101,  112,  113,  168 
Lopes  (Fernao),   136 

-  de  Castanheda  (F.),  137 

-  de  Haro  (Mecia),  109 
Vieira  (Affonso),  94 

Louza,   100 
Lucena  (Joao  de),- 139 
Luiz  I,  131 
Luso,  85 

MACEDO  (Antonio  Sousa  de),  124, 
125 

-  (J.  A.  de),  143 

Machado  (Bernardino),  70,  176, 
183,  192,  210,  211,  219,  239 

Santos  (M.),  169,  174,  177, 

195,  209 

Macieira  (A.),  69 

Mafra,  91-2 

Magalhaes  (Luiz  de),   148 

Magusto,  50 

Manoel  I,  2,  89,   104 

-  II,  104,  188,  191,  194,  196, 
246 

Manoeline    Architecture,    21,    88, 

96,  97 

Manufactures,  36 
Maria  I,   128,   129 

-  II    90,   130,   131 

-  Pia,  Queen,   189 

Marie  Amelie,  Queen,  90,  132,  189 


Martyres  (Bartholomeu  dos),  138, 

141 

Marvell  (Christopher),  90 
Mathilde,  Countess,  110,  111 
1  Melgaso,   100 
Mello  (F.  M.  de),  141 
Mendes  Pinto  (F.),  137-138 
Meneses  (Joaode),  118 
Methuen  Treaty,  37,  126,  225,  226 
Michaelis  de  Vasconcellos  (C),  133 
Miguel,  Dom,   131-132 
Mines,  35 

Minho,  20,  25,  30,  37,  39,  50,  59 
Minhotos,  3,  4,  8,  56,  100 
Missa  do  Gallo,  50 
Monchique,   103 
Mondego,  The,  58,  79,  99 
Monsao,  37 

Montes  Claros,  Battle  of,  125 
Motor-cars,  34,  36 
Mozambique,  236 

NABANTIA,  97 
Nabao,  The,  97 
Negroes,  4 

Niza,  Family  of,   134 
Novels,  146-8 

Nun'  Alvares  Pereira,  22,  88,  93, 
95,  113,  114,  222 

OCTOGENARIANS,  26 
Olive  oil,  38 

Oliveira  (Fernando  d'),  55 
(Nicolas),  86 


Martins  (J.  P.),  4,  146 
~7.  C),  194 


Oman  (C.  W. 

Oporto,  25,  38,  39,  56,  70,  101-3 

Ovar,  44 


PACHECO  Pereira  (Duarte),  117 
Paes  (Gualdim),  97 


(Maria),   108 


Paiva  de  Andrade  (Diogo),  138 

-  Couceiro,  Captain,  202,  256 
Palmeirim  of  England,  100 
Palmella,  47,   100 
Payalvo,  97 
Pedro  I,  93,   111-2 

II,   125,   126,  275 

IV,   130,   131 


Index 


267 


Pedro  II,   125 
V,   131 

— ,  Infante,  115 
Pena  Longa,   16 
Philip  II  of  Spain,  121 
Philippa,  Queen,  95,  96,  222 
Pimenta  de  Castro,  General,  179, 

212,  213,  214,  215,  245,  256 
Pina  (Ruy  de),   136 
Pinto  (Heitor),   139 
Pires  (A.  T.),   15,   16 
Poinsard  (Leon),  23,  28 
Pombal,    Marquez    de,   127,   128, 

226 

Population,  25,  26 
Portalegre,  36,  39 
Portimao,   103 
Portugal  (Manoel  de),   140 
Posts,  35 

Povoa  de  Varzim,   100 
Praia  das  Macas,  91 

-  da  Rocha,   103 
Principe,  I,  236 
Prisons,  49,  50 
Progressistas,   131 
Protestantism,  9 
Pucaros,  21 

QUADRAS,   16 

Quental  (Anthero  de),   144 

Quintas,  21 

Quita  (D.  dos  R.),  143 

RAILWAYS,  35 
Regeneradores,   131 
Religious  Orders,  61,  62 
Republicas,  58 
Resende  (Andre  de),   104 

—  (Garcia  de),  94,   134,   135 
Rhodes,  (Cecil),  65 
Ribatejo,  37 

Ribeira  de  Pena  Longa,  77 
Ribeiro  (Antonio),  41 

-  (Bernardim),  90,   140 

-  (Joao  Pinto),   123 

—  (Thomaz),  145 
Roads,  33 

Roman  Catholics,  9,  61,  62 
Romantics,  144 
Romarias,  50 


Rupert,  Prince,  223 

SA  de  Meneses  (F.  de),  140 

Sa  de  Miranda  (F.  de),  139 

Sado,  The,  79 

Sagres,   103 

Saint  John's  Fires,  51-4 

Salado,  Battle  of,  111 

Salaries,  27,  28 

Saloios,  47 

Sancho  I,   108 

—  II,   109 
Sanitation,  29 
Santarem,  38,  39,  79 
Santos  (Joao  dos),  1,  241 

-  (Miguel  dos),   138 
S.  Thome,  236 

Schaefer  (Heinrich),  112,  227 
Schomberg,  Count  of,   125 
Schools,  68-70 

Sebastian,  King,  118,  120,  122 
Sebastianismo,  5,   169 
Serra  de  Arrabida,  79 

—  Cintra,  77,  78,  79,  91 

-  da  Estrella,  32,  59,  60,  82 

do  Gerez,  32,  82 

de  Monchique,  82 

Sertorius,   107 

Setubal,  25,  37,  79,  86,  103 
Shepherds,  59,  60 
Silva  (A.  J.  da),  143 
Silveira  (Alberto),   181 
Silver,  103 
Sines,  103 

Soares  (Manoel),  7,  204 
Sobieski  (J.),  4 

Sociedade    Propaganda    de    Por- 
tugal, 34,  84 
Sousa  (Luis  de),  141 

—  Viterbo  (F.  M.  de),  140 
Spain   and   Portugal,    2,    10,    13, 

121-3,  125,  126,  216,  217,  218, 

224 

Sport,  55 

Stevenson  (R.  L.),  7 
Strangford,  Lord,  226 
Street  Cries,  44,  45 
Superstitions,   15,  54 

TAGUS,  47,  79 


268 


Index 


Tangiers,   114,   115 
Tavora,  Family  of,   128 
Teixeira  de  Queiroz,  64,  185,  193 

-  Sousa,  64,   148 
Telles  (Bazilio),  249 

(Leonor),   112 

-  (Maria),   112 

—  da  Gama  (Constan9a),  134 
Tenreiro  (Antonio),  138 
Theresa,  Countess,  107,  108 
Thomar,  96,  97 
Timor,  237 
Torre  do  Tombo,  134 
Touradas  Nocturnas,  55 
Trancoso     (Gon9alo     Fernandes), 

104,   139 
Traz  os  Montes,  25,  32,   39,  59, 

100,   101 

USQUE  (Samuel),  139 

VASCONCELLOS  (Augusto  de),  203, 
205 

(Joaquim  de),   150 

Vaz  de  Carvalho  (M.  A.),  148 


Vez,  The;  79 

Vianna  do  Alemtejo,    103 

do  Castello,  39,  100,  121 

Vicente  (Gil),  60,  135,139,  152-63, 

255 

Vieira  (Antonio),  142 
Vilhena  (Filippa  de),  123 
Villa  do  Conde,  100 

Real,  39,   101 

—  de  S.  Antonio,  79 
Villages,  49,  85 
Viriatus,   107 
Vives  (Luis),   14 
Vizeu,   138 

— ,  Duke  of,  116,  117 
Voltaire,  24 

WATER,  43 

Wellington,  Duke  of,  129 

White  Ants,  58 

Wines,  37 

Women,  7,  8,  26 

Woollens,  36 

Wyche  (Sir  Peter),  2 


THE  END 


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